Viral Nanostrucutres Assist Light-Driven Water Oxidation

A genetically engineered virus acting as a nanoscaffold can precisely assemble the components of an artificial photosynthetic system, a promising new direction for capturing and storing solar energy (Nat. Nanotechnol., DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2010.57). Despite intensive research, scientists have yet to devise systems that accomplish the photocatalytic splitting of water molecules with the same ease as photosynthetic systems in cyanobacteria and plants. Tailoring the distances between photosensitizers and catalysts, which is essential for effective performance, has been a bottleneck. Angela M. Belcher and Yoon Sung Nam of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues made use of coat proteins on an engineered version of the M13 virus to assemble zinc porphyrin photosensitizers and iridium oxide hydrosol cluster catalysts together in optimal configurations. The team immobilized the system in a hydrogel microparticle for added stability. When exposed to light, the system evolved O₂, demonstrating that it’s “an effective means by which to increase light conversion into chemical potential for water oxidation,” the researchers write.