Photosynthesis is a sustainable process for the conversion of light energy into chemical energy. Thylakoids in energy‐transducing photosynthetic membranes are unique in biological membranes because of their distinguished structure and composition. The quantum trapping efficiency of thylakoid membranes is appealing in photobioelectrochemical research. In this study, thylakoid membranes extracted from spinach are shown to communicate with a gold‐nanoparticle‐modified solid gold electrode (AuNP–Au) through a series of quinone derivatives. Among these, para‐benzoquinone (PBQ) is found to be the best soluble electron‐transfer mediator, generating the highest photocurrent of approximately 130 μA cm−2 from water oxidation under illumination. In addition, the photocurrent density is investigated as a function of applied potential, the effect of light intensity, quinone concentration, and amount of thylakoid membrane. Finally, the source of photocurrent is confirmed by using 3‐(3,4‐dichlorophenyl)‐1,1‐dimethylurea (known by its trade name, Diuron), an inhibitor of photosystem II, which decreases the total photocurrent by 50 %.

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In this paper, new findings for the water-oxidizing activity of [(L)Cu(II)(NO3)], (L = (E)-3-(pyridin-2-yldiazenyl)naphthalen-2-ol (HL)) under both electro-water oxidation conditions and in the presence of cerium(iv) ammonium nitrate are reported.

What prompted you to investigate this topic/problem? Cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) is one of the few sugar oxidising enzymes that shows efficient direct electron transfer (DET) characteristics with electrodes and thus av ery good candidate for making third-generation biosensors and bioanodes for biofuel cells. However,DET relies on good communication between the cy-tochrome domain (CYT) and the electrode. On an aked electrode CDH is expected to adsorb randomly meaning that all CYTsw ill not make efficient contact with the electrode. In this study,w e combined two approaches to ensure advantageous orientation of as many CDH molecules as possible through:1)making the electrode surface positively charged using polyethyleneimine and 2) nanostructuring the electrode surface with gold nanoparticles. This combination increased both the percentage of better orientated CDH molecules and current density leading to the sensitive detection of lactose. Who contributed to the idea behind the cover? Mojtaba Ta vahodi, Christopher Schulz and Roland Ludwig joined forces to come up with the ideas that were expressed graphically on the cover picture. M.T.p repared the final version of the cover. What are the main challengesi nthe broad area of your research? The main challenges are to design an electrode surface onto which ah igh surface concentration of biomolecule(s) can be immobilised and at the same time be orientated so that DET will be facilitated between the redox active sites of the biomolecule and the electrode. This guarantees long-term integrity of the biomolecule and also allows other molecules, such as substrates and products, to have access to the reaction centres of the biomolecule. Who pays the bill for the research highlighted on the cover?