Whole‐Cell‐Based Photosynthetic Biohybrid Systems for Energy and Environmental Applications

Abstract

With the increasing awareness of sustainable development, energy and environment are becoming two of the most important issues of concern to the world today. Whole-cellbased photosynthetic biohybrid systems (PBSs), an emerging interdisciplinary field, are considered as attractive biosynthetic platforms with great prospects in energy and environment, combining the superiorities of semiconductor materials with high energy conversion efficiency and living cells with distin-guished biosynthetic capacity. This review presents a systematic discussion on the synthesis strategies of whole-cell-based PBSs that demonstrate a promising potential for applications in sustainable solar-to-chemical conversion, including light-facilitated carbon dioxide reduction and biohydrogen production. In the end, the explicit perspectives on the challenges and future directions in this burgeoning field are discussed.

Emerging Trends in Nanomaterials for Photosynthetic Biohybrid Systems

“…Like AuNCs, AuNPs can produce electron by photosynthesis reaction. In Figure b, hybrid system combining microalgae (i.e., Chlorella zofingiensis ) and plasmonic light-harvesting AuNPs for efficient production of carotenoids by increasing C. zofingiensis ’ photosynthetic performance. , However, this system used calvin cycle to produce carotenoids. High-level plants’ chloroplast stroma is home to the Calvin cycle, the major mechanism of carbon fixation .…”

Will microfluidics enable functionally integrated biohybrid robots?

“…For example, future machines could work thanks to microbial fuel-cell technology, which exploits bacteria to convert the chemical energy of organic compounds into electricity ( 52 ). Alternatively, whole-cell–based photosynthetic biohybrid systems that mediate sustainable solar to chemical conversion (e.g., for light-facilitated carbon dioxide reduction and biohydrogen production) could serve for energy production and storage, supporting future robotics in environmental applications ( 53 ).…”

Photocatalytic Material-Microorganism Hybrid System and Its Application—A Review

“…Microorganisms use these electrons to participate in metabolic pathways for the targeted synthesis of complex products [22]. Nowadays, semiconductors, dyes/polymers, and electrodes can be combined with microorganisms to prepare hybrid photocatalytic material-microorganism systems (Table 1) [23,24]. Micromachines 2022, 13, 861 3 of 14…”

“…Xiao et al presented a visible light-responding photochemical system for microorganisms that could reduce CO 2 to CH 4 [45]. The biological production of H 2 possesses the advantages of raw material availability, self-sustainable, and system reproducibility [24,66]. Tang's team initiated the in situ deposition of silica on the surface of Chlorella cells to form the core-shell structure of green algal aggregates.…”