Artificial photosynthesis on a chip: microfluidic cofactor regeneration and photoenzymatic synthesis under visible light

Abstract

We present a microfluidic artificial photosynthetic platform that incorporates quantum dots and redox enzymes for photoenzymatic synthesis of fine chemicals under visible light. Similar to natural photosynthesis, photochemical cofactor regeneration takes place in the light-dependent reaction zone, which is then coupled with the light-independent, enzymatic synthesis in the downstream of the microchannel.