TOPICS

Professor Yutaka Amao (Director, Research Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (ReCAP)) received the "Outstanding achievement and contribution to ISAMR2015 Invited Presentation" award at the International Symposium for Advanced Materials Research (ISAMR 2015), held from August 16 to 20, 2015, in Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan.

Lecture Title

"Artificial Photosynthesis: Photoelectrochemical Biofuel Cell with the Carbon Dioxide Conversion Function -Combination System of Thylakoid Membrane from Microalgae Spirulina Platensis and Biocatalyst Immobilized Electrodes"

Research Summary

Research is being advanced on sunlight energy utilization and conversion technologies that leverage the oxygenic photosynthesis of algae. Oxygenic photosynthesis is a redox system that links two reaction pathways: Photosystem I (PSI), a reduction system that generates reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) using solar energy as a driving force, and Photosystem II (PSII), an oxidation system that produces oxygen by oxidizing water with solar energy. Since photosynthetic reactions establish a redox system using water as an electron medium, there are high expectations for their application in photoelectric conversion devices based on the oxidation and reduction of water.

In this study, as a biofuel conversion technology utilizing photosynthetic functions, we constructed a solar-driven biofuel cell composed of a photosynthetic membrane-integrated electrode derived from Spirulina and a formate dehydrogenase-immobilized electrode. This biofuel cell is a groundbreaking system that combines the functions of a solar cell, carbon dioxide reduction, and fuel production.