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M Meirovich M, Bachar O, Shemesh M, Cohen Y, Popik A, Yehezkeli O. Light-driven, bias-free nitrogenase-based bioelectrochemical cell for ammonia generation. Biosens Bioelectron 2024; 255:116254. [PMID: 38569252 DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2024.116254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2024] [Revised: 03/12/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024]
Abstract
Nitrogen fixation is a key process that sustains life on Earth. Nitrogenase is the sole enzyme capable of fixing nitrogen under ambient conditions. Extensive research efforts have been dedicated to elucidating the enzyme mechanism and its artificial activation through high applied voltage, photochemistry, or strong reducing agents. Harnessing light irradiation to minimize the required external bias can lower the process's high energy investment. Herein, we present the development of photo-bioelectrochemical cells (PBECs) utilizing BiVO4/CoP or CdS/NiO photoanodes for nitrogenase activation toward N2 fixation. The constructed PBEC based on BiVO4/CoP photoanode requires minimal external bias (200 mV) and suppresses O2 generation that allows efficient activation of the nitrogenase enzyme, using glucose as an electron donor. In a second developed PBEC configuration, CdS/NiO photoanode was used, enabling bias-free activation of the nitrogenase-based cathode to produce 100 μM of ammonia at a faradaic efficiency (FE) of 12%. The ammonia production was determined by a commonly used fluorescence probe and further validated using 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The presented PBECs lay the foundation for biotic-abiotic systems to directly activate enzymes toward value-added chemicals by light-driven reactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matan M Meirovich
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
| | - Oren Bachar
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
| | - Mor Shemesh
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
| | - Yifat Cohen
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
| | - Alice Popik
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
| | - Omer Yehezkeli
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel; Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel; The Nancy and Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel.
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Meirovich MM, Bachar O, Nandi R, Amdursky N, Yehezkeli O. Tailoring Quantum Dot Sizes for Optimal Photoinduced Catalytic Activation of Nitrogenase. ChemSusChem 2021; 14:5410-5416. [PMID: 34612599 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202101676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2021] [Revised: 09/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Many efforts have been directed towards elucidating the nitrogenase structure, its biocatalytic activity, and methods to artificially activate it by external stimuli. Here, we investigated how semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) with sizes ranging between 2.3-3.5 nm form nano-biohybrids with the nitrogenase enzyme and enable its photoinduced biocatalytic activity. We examined two homogenously synthesized quantum dots (QDs), CdS, CdSe, and two nitrogenase variants, the wild-type and a cysteine-mutated. We show that the cysteine-mutated variant does not enhance the hydrogen generation amounts, as compared with the wild type. Nevertheless, we show that the 2.3 nm-sized CdSe NPs facilitate an eightfold increase compared with larger CdSe NPs. The obtained results were investigated using electrochemical techniques, transmission electron microscopy, and further confirmed by time-resolved spectroscopic measurements, which allow us to determine the electron tranfer rate constant (kET ) of the different configurations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matan M Meirovich
- Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
| | - Oren Bachar
- Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
| | - Ramesh Nandi
- Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
| | - Nadav Amdursky
- Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
| | - Omer Yehezkeli
- Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
- Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
- The Nancy and Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel
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Harris AW, Roy S, Ganguly S, Parameswar AV, Lucas FWS, Holewinski A, Goodwin AP, Cha JN. Investigating the use of conducting oligomers and redox molecules in CdS-MoFeP biohybrids. Nanoscale Adv 2021; 3:1392-1396. [PMID: 36132854 PMCID: PMC9418983 DOI: 10.1039/d0na00678e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2020] [Accepted: 12/18/2020] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
In this work we report the effect of incorporating conducting oligophenylenes and a cobaltocene-based redox mediator on photodriven electron transfer between thioglycolic acid (TGA) capped CdS nanorods (NR) and the native nitrogenase MoFe protein (MoFeP) by following the reduction of H+ to H2. First, we demonstrate that the addition of benzidine-a conductive diphenylene- to TGA-CdS and MoFeP increased catalytic activity by up to 3-fold as compared to CdS-MoFeP alone. In addition, in comparing the use of oligophenylenes composed of one (p-phenylenediamine), two (benzidine) or three (4,4''-diamino-p-terphenyl)phenylene groups, the largest gain in H2 was observed with the addition of benzidine and the lowest with phenylenediamine. As a comparison to the conductive oligophenylenes, a cobaltocene-based redox mediator was also tested with the TGA-CdS NRs and MoFeP. However, adding either cobaltocene diacid or diamine caused negligible gains in H2 production and at higher concentrations, caused a significant decrease. Agarose gel electrophoresis revealed little to no detectable interaction between benzidine and TGA-CdS but strong binding between cobaltocene and TGA-CdS. These results suggest that the tight binding of the cobaltocene mediator to CdS may hinder electron transfer between CdS and MoFe and cause the mediator to undergo continuous reduction/oxidation events at the surface of CdS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander W Harris
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
| | - Shambojit Roy
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
| | - Saheli Ganguly
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
| | - Ashray V Parameswar
- Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
| | - Francisco W S Lucas
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
| | - Adam Holewinski
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
- Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, University of Colorado Boulder CO 80303 USA
| | - Andrew P Goodwin
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
- Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
| | - Jennifer N Cha
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
- Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado Boulder 3415 Colorado Avenue Boulder CO 80303 USA
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Rapson TD, Gregg CM, Allen RS, Ju H, Doherty CM, Mulet X, Giddey S, Wood CC. Insights into Nitrogenase Bioelectrocatalysis for Green Ammonia Production. ChemSusChem 2020; 13:4856-4865. [PMID: 32696610 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202001433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2020] [Revised: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
There is a growing interest in using ammonia as a liquid carrier of hydrogen for energy applications. Currently, ammonia is produced industrially by the Haber-Bosch process, which requires high temperature and high pressure. In contrast, bacteria have naturally evolved an enzyme known as nitrogenase, that is capable of producing ammonia and hydrogen at ambient temperature and pressure. Therefore, nitrogenases are attractive as a potentially more efficient means to produce ammonia via harnessing the unique properties of this enzyme. In recent years, exciting progress has been made in bioelectrocatalysis using nitrogenases to produce ammonia. Here, the prospects for developing biological ammonia production are outlined, key advances in bioelectrocatalysis by nitrogenases are highlighted, and possible solutions to the obstacles faced in realising this goal are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Trevor D Rapson
- CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Black Mountain, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | | | - Robert S Allen
- CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Black Mountain, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - HyungKuk Ju
- CSIRO Energy, Private Bag 10, Clayton South, 3169, Victoria, Australia
| | - Cara M Doherty
- CSIRO Manufacturing, Private Bag 10, Clayton South, 3169, Victoria, Australia
| | - Xavier Mulet
- CSIRO Manufacturing, Private Bag 10, Clayton South, 3169, Victoria, Australia
| | - Sarbjit Giddey
- CSIRO Energy, Private Bag 10, Clayton South, 3169, Victoria, Australia
| | - Craig C Wood
- CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Black Mountain, ACT, 2601, Australia
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Meirovich MM, Bachar O, Yehezkeli O. Artificial, Photoinduced Activation of Nitrogenase Using Directed and Mediated Electron Transfer Processes. Catalysts 2020; 10:979. [DOI: 10.3390/catal10090979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Nitrogenase, a bacteria-based enzyme, is the sole enzyme that is able to generate ammonia by atmospheric nitrogen fixation. Thus, improved understanding of its utilization and developing methods to artificially activate it may contribute to basic research, as well as to the design of future artificial systems. Here, we present methods to artificially activate nitrogenase using photoinduced reactions. Two nitrogenase variants originating from Azotobacter vinelandii were examined using photoactivated CdS nanoparticles (NPs) capped with thioglycolic acid (TGA) or 2-mercaptoethanol (ME) ligands. The effect of methyl viologen (MV) as a redox mediator of hydrogen and ammonia generation was tested and analyzed. We further determined the NPs conductive band edges and their effect on the nitrogenase photoactivation. The nano-biohybrid systems comprising CdS NPs and nitrogenase were further imaged by transmission electron microscopy, visualizing their formation for the first time. Our results show that the ME-capped CdS NPs–nitrogenase enzyme biohybrid system with added MV as a redox mediator leads to a five-fold increase in the production of ammonia compared with the non-mediated biohybrid system; nevertheless, it stills lag behind the natural process rate. On the contrary, a maximal hydrogen generation amount was achieved by the αL158C MoFe-P and the ME-capped CdS NPs.
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Abstract
As the only enzyme currently known to reduce dinitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3), nitrogenase is of significant interest for bio-inspired catalyst design and for new biotechnologies aiming to produce NH3 from N2. In order to reduce N2, nitrogenase must also hydrolyze at least 16 equivalents of adenosine triphosphate (MgATP), representing the consumption of a significant quantity of energy available to biological systems. Here, we review natural and engineered electron transfer pathways to nitrogenase, including strategies to redirect or redistribute electron flow in vivo towards NH3 production. Further, we also review strategies to artificially reduce nitrogenase in vitro, where MgATP hydrolysis is necessary for turnover, in addition to strategies that are capable of bypassing the requirement of MgATP hydrolysis to achieve MgATP-independent N2 reduction.
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