The bacterium
Moorella thermoacetica is being used to perform photosynthesis
in a hybrid
artificial photosynthesis system for converting sunlight into valuable chemical
products.
(January 5, 2015) Berkeley
Lab Scientists Teach Bacterium a New Trick for Artificial Photosynthesis
Trainers of dogs, horses, and other animal performers take
note: a bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica has been induced to perform only
a single trick, but it’s a doozy. Berkeley Lab researchers are using M.
thermoacetica to perform photosynthesis – despite being non-photosynthetic –
and also to synthesize semiconductor nanoparticles in a hybrid artificial
photosynthesis system for converting sunlight into valuable chemical products.
“We’ve demonstrated the first self-photosensitization of a
non-photosynthetic bacterium, M. thermoacetica, with cadmium sulfide
nanoparticles to produce acetic acid from carbon dioxide at efficiencies and
yield that are comparable to or may even exceed the capabilities of natural
photosynthesis,” says Peidong Yang, a chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Materials
Sciences Division, who led this work.
Nanoscience expert
Peidong Yang holds appointments with
Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley and the Kavli
Energy NanoSciences
Institute at Berkeley. (Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt)
“The bacteria/inorganic-semiconductor hybrid artificial
photosynthesis system we’ve created is self-replicating through the
bio-precipitation of cadmium sulfide nanoparticles, which serve as the light
harvester to sustain cellular metabolism,” Yang says. “Demonstrating this
cyborgian ability to self-augment the functionality of biological systems
through inorganic chemistry opens up the integration of biotic and abiotic
components for the next generation of advanced solar-to-chemical conversion
technologies.”