Live cyanobacteria produce photocurrent and hydrogen using both the respiratory and photosynthetic systems

Gadiel Saper, Dan Kallmann, Felipe Conzuelo, Fangyuan Zhao, Tünde N. Tóth, Varda Liveanu, Sagit Meir, Jedrzej Szymanski, Asaph Aharoni, Wolfgang Schuhmann, Avner Rothschild, Gadi Schuster () and Noam Adir ()
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Gadiel Saper: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Dan Kallmann: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Felipe Conzuelo: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Fangyuan Zhao: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Tünde N. Tóth: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Varda Liveanu: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Sagit Meir: The Weizmann Institute of Science
Jedrzej Szymanski: The Weizmann Institute of Science
Asaph Aharoni: The Weizmann Institute of Science
Wolfgang Schuhmann: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Avner Rothschild: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Gadi Schuster: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Noam Adir: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Oxygenic photosynthetic organisms perform solar energy conversion of water and CO2 to O2 and sugar at a broad range of wavelengths and light intensities. These cells also metabolize sugars using a respiratory system that functionally overlaps the photosynthetic apparatus. In this study, we describe the harvesting of photocurrent used for hydrogen production from live cyanobacteria. A non-harmful gentle physical treatment of the cyanobacterial cells enables light-driven electron transfer by an endogenous mediator to a graphite electrode in a bio-photoelectrochemical cell, without the addition of sacrificial electron donors or acceptors. We show that the photocurrent is derived from photosystem I and that the electrons originate from carbohydrates digested by the respiratory system. Finally, the current is utilized for hydrogen evolution on the cathode at a bias of 0.65 V. Taken together, we present a bio-photoelectrochemical system where live cyanobacteria produce stable photocurrent that can generate hydrogen.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04613-x

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