Sensitizer-modified proteins for solar-driven water splitting

Abstract

Aerobic respiration and photosynthesis work in concert: Dioxygen liberated by photosynthetic organisms sustains life in aerobic microbes and animals; and, in turn, the products of aerobic respiratory metab., carbon dioxide and water, nourish photosynthetic organisms. Electron flow through proteins and protein assemblies in the photosynthetic and respiratory machinery commonly occurs between metal centers or other redox cofactors that are sepd. by relatively large mol. distances, often in the 10 to 20 angstrom range. Both theorists and experimentalists have worked long and hard in attempts to understand the underlying physics and chem. of these electron transport processes. Lessons learned about the control of electron tunneling and hopping through org. and biol. mols. are now being used to design sensitizer-modified protein machines incorporating catalysts that can generate hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water.