Themed collection Biohybrid approaches for energy conversion

This review describes supramolecular strategies for optimization and integration of components needed for the fundamentals of artificial photosynthesis: light harvesting, charge-separation and catalysis, which are relevant for solar-to-fuel devices.

Enzymes are excellent catalysts that are increasingly being used in industry and academia. This Perspective provides a general and practical guide to enzymes and their synthetic potential, primarily aimed at synthetic organic chemists.

Overview of the rich and diverse contributions of quantum chemistry to understanding the structure and function of the biological archetypes for solar fuel research, photosystem II and hydrogenases.

This article features the recent progress of bioinspired metal complexes as catalysts with high stability, specific selectivity and satisfactory efficiency to drive multiple-electron and multiple-proton related to small molecule transformation.

Guiding principle to design earth-abundant water oxidation catalysts.

Reduction of oxides and oxoanions of carbon and nitrogen are of great contemporary importance as they are crucial for a sustainable environment.

[FeFe]-hydrogenases recieved increasing interest in the last decades. This review summarises important findings regarding their enzymatic reactivity as well as inorganic models applied as electro- and photochemical catalysts.

Recent developments in (photo)electrochemical CO₂ reduction combining Fe, Ni, and Co molecular complexes and (semi)conductive materials have led to high catalytic performances.

This review provides an overview of the cross-disciplinary field of semi-artificial photosynthesis, which combines strengths of biocatalysis and artificial photosynthesis to develop new concepts and approaches for solar-to-chemical conversion.

A NICE approach for the design of nature-inspired electrocatalysts and electrochemical devices for energy conversion.

Energy generated from wastes by using MFC technology could be effectively stored and utilized for real-world applications.

This tutorial review focuses on recent advances in technologies for enzyme immobilisation, enabling their cost-effective use in the bio-based economy and continuous processing in general.

This tutorial review describes the physical–chemical aspects one must consider when building photocatalytic liposomes for solar fuel production.

This tutorial review covers tools, strategies, and procedures of systems metabolic engineering facilitating the development of microbial cell factories efficiently producing chemicals and materials.

Protein engineering provides a means to alter protein structure leading to new functions.

We demonstrate that the insertion of the dinuclear active site of [FeFe] hydrogenase into the apo-enzyme can occur when the enzyme is embedded in a film of redox polymer, under conditions of mediated electron transfer.

A kinetic and mechanistic analysis of [Pt(depe)₂](PF₆)₂, an electrocatalyst for the reversible conversion between CO₂ and HCO₂⁻ with high selectivity at low overpotentials.

Novel dry-distilled catalysts based on Rh, Ni and S were developed via a Ni(μ-S)₂Rh organometallic [NiFe]hydrogenase mimic.

[FeFe] hydrogenases are highly active hydrogen conversion catalysts, whose oxygen sensitivity prevents their widespread application. Here, an oxygen-stable inactive form was reactivated in a redox hydrogel enabling its practical use under air.

Oxygen reduction reactions catalyzed by a mixed-valent copper complex reveal a tuneable H₂O₂/H₂O selectivity at room temperature together with high stability over several cycles.

Photochemical reduction of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) enables the direct, non-enzymatic regeneration of styrene monooxygenase for enantiospecific epoxidation reactions.

Heterogeneous chemo-bio catalytic hydrogenation is an attractive strategy for clean, enantioselective CX reduction.

Phenazines were explored as novel low-midpoint potential molecules for wiring cyanobacteria to electrodes.

Nanostructured conjugated polymers of diphenylbutadiyne (nano-PDPB) can perform photocatalytic water oxidation under visible light excitation. Charge recovery delayed in time was exemplified by the reduction of quinone acting as a hydrogen reservoir.

The mechanism of hydrogen gas formation by [FeFe] hydrogenase is probed under whole cell conditions, revealing the formation of reactive metal hydride species under physiologically relevant conditions.

Quinones are dual compounds able to extract photosynthetic electrons from living organisms but with long-term poisoning effects.

We demonstrate a novel hydrogel material to facilitate direct bioelectrochemistry of a wide range of redox proteins and enable ATP-independent electroenzymatic reduction of N₂ by nitrogenase.

Electrochemical studies of diheme cytochrome/cupredoxin complexes provide new insights into the electron transfer pathway in an acidophilic bacterium.

A bio-hybrid material has been discovered, which offers a new direction for fast, specific enzyme-catalyzed organic synthesis.