Photosynthesis-Mediated Intracellular Biomineralization of Gold Nanoparticlesinside Chlorella Cells towards Hydrogen Boosting under Green Light.

Abstract

Engineering living microorganisms to enhance green biomanufacturing for the development of sustainable and carbon-neutral energy strategies has attracted the interest of researchers from a wide range of scientific communities. In this study, we developa method to achieve the photosynthesis-mediated intracellular biomineralization of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) inside Chlorella cells, where the photosynthesis-dominated reduction of Au3+ to Au0 allows the formed AuNPs to locate preferentially around the thylakoid membrane domain. In particular, we reveal that the electrons generated by the localized surface plasmon resonance of AuNPs could greatly augment hypoxic photosynthesis, which then promotes the generation and transferring of photoelectrons throughout photosynthetic chain for augmented hydrogen production under sunlight. Significantly, we demonstrate that the electrons from AuNPs could be directly transferred to hydrogenase, giving rise to an 8.3-fold enhancement of algal hydrogen production independent of cellular photosynthetic process under monochromatic 560 nm light irradiation. Overall, the photosynthesis-mediated intracellular biomineralization of AuNPs could contribute to a novel paradigm for functionalizing Chlorella cells to augment biomanufacturing.