Construction of natural-artificical hybrid photosynthetic systems inside silica nanopores

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23655196
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Inorganic industrial materials
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: ITOH Shigeru 名古屋大学, 遺伝子実験施設, 名誉教授 (40108634)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 光合成 / 人工光合成 / 光反応 / メゾスコピック / 酸素発生 / 水素発生 / シリカ / ナノマテリアル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Photosynthetic proteins were incorporated into silicananopores, which were made inside three types of mesoscopic silica materials with　shapes of powder (μm size particles), glass plates and thin alumina-plates. As the protein materials, photosystem I and II reaction center complexes (PSI-, PSII-RCs) with molecular diameters of 21 nm containing 50-100 pigments were used. They were incorporated into silica nanopores with a 25-100 nm diameter made inside micrometer-size particles (FSM, SBA) or inside the large 300 nm pores that penetrates an alumina plate of 60-μm thickness. PSI-RC was stable inside the nanopores and rapidly photoreduced methyl viologen. The reduced dye was stablized inside nanopores and produced H2 by hydrogenase. PSII-RC in nanopores efficiently produced molecular oxygen from water by light enegry. The hybrids of protein-silica mesoscopic materials provide new platforms for the photoreactions and artificial photosynthesis.

Free Research Field

生物物理学