New detection method for hydrogen gas for screening hydrogen-producing microorganisms using water-soluble wilkinson's catalyst derivative.

A water-soluble color indicator was developed for the effective screening of hydrogen-producing microorganisms. This indicator consists of a coloring agent and a water-soluble derivative of Wilkinson's catalyst. Wilkinson's catalyst, Tris(triphenylphosphine) rhodium chloride, had been developed as a catalyst for the hydrogenation of olefins. We used a sulfonate of the catalyst for the hydrogenation of coloring agent in an aqueous medium. Several coloring agents, such as methyl orange, methyl red sodium, neutral red and Evan's blue, dissolved in water together with the sulfonated catalyst showed a change in color when hydrogen gas was fed into the solution by sparging at room temperature. We confirmed that methyl orange was decolorized by biologically produced hydrogen, when the photosynthetic bacterial strain Rhodobacter capsulatus ST-410 was grown in a medium containing 0.6 mM catalyst and 0.075 mM methyl orange in test tubes of 5 ml working volume.