Creating Artificial Photosystems

Andrea Pannwitz / University of Ulm, Germany

January 18, 2024

Introduction

In nature, solar light energy conversion takes place within the thylakoid membrane during photosynthesis. Biomimetic lipid bilayers can be used as supramolecular scaffold to mimic concepts of photosynthesis to eventually generate fuels and high value chemicals using solar light as principal energy resource.[1,2] In the here presented work, lipid bilayer membranes of liposomes assemble chromophores for light harvesting energy transfer cascades, light induced transmembrane electron transfer, and (compartmentalized)[3] light driven conversions such as NADH conversion and CO2 reduction providing new directions for artificial photosynthesis and solar fuels generation.

References

[1] Pannwitz, A.; Klein, D. M.; Rodríguez-Jiménez, S.; Casadevall, C.; Song, H.; Reisner, E.; Hammarström, L.; Bonnet, S. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2021, 50, 4833–4855.
[2] Sinambela, N.; Bösking, J.; Abbas, A.; Pannwitz, A ChemBioChem 2021, 22, 3140–3147.
[3] Nau, R. E. P.; Bösking, J.; Pannwitz, A.; ChemPhotoChem 2022, 6, e202200158.

Introduction

In nature, solar light energy conversion takes place within the thylakoid membrane during photosynthesis. Biomimetic lipid bilayers can be used as supramolecular scaffold to mimic concepts of photosynthesis to eventually generate fuels and high value chemicals using solar light as principal energy resource.[1,2] In the here presented work, lipid bilayer membranes of liposomes assemble chromophores for light harvesting energy transfer cascades, light induced transmembrane electron transfer, and (compartmentalized)[3] light driven conversions such as NADH conversion and CO2 reduction providing new directions for artificial photosynthesis and solar fuels generation.

References

[1] Pannwitz, A.; Klein, D. M.; Rodríguez-Jiménez, S.; Casadevall, C.; Song, H.; Reisner, E.; Hammarström, L.; Bonnet, S. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2021, 50, 4833–4855.
[2] Sinambela, N.; Bösking, J.; Abbas, A.; Pannwitz, A ChemBioChem 2021, 22, 3140–3147.
[3] Nau, R. E. P.; Bösking, J.; Pannwitz, A.; ChemPhotoChem 2022, 6, e202200158.

Andrea Pannwitz

studied Chemistry at the Georg-August-University Göttingen in Germany before she moved to Basel for her PhD studies with Prof. Oliver Wenger. After a postdoctoral stay at Leiden University with Professor Sylvestre Bonnet she became an independent research group leader for Inorganic Chemistry and Energy Conversion at the University of Ulm in 2020.