Photoreduction of CO with a Formate Dehydrogenase Driven by Photosystem II Using a Semi-artificial Z-Scheme Architecture.

Solar-driven coupling of water oxidation with CO reduction sustains life on our planet and is of high priority in contemporary energy research. Here, we report a photoelectrochemical tandem device that performs photocatalytic reduction of CO to formate. We employ a semi-artificial design, which wires a W-dependent formate dehydrogenase (FDH) cathode to a photoanode containing the photosynthetic water oxidation enzyme, Photosystem II, via a synthetic dye with complementary light absorption. From a biological perspective, the system achieves a metabolically inaccessible pathway of light-driven CO fixation to formate. From a synthetic point of view, it represents a proof-of-principle system utilizing precious-metal-free catalysts for selective CO-to-formate conversion using water as an electron donor. This hybrid platform demonstrates the translatability and versatility of coupling abiotic and biotic components to create challenging models for solar fuel and chemical synthesis.