Bacteria–photocatalyst sheet for sustainable carbon dioxide utilization

The clean conversion of carbon dioxide and water to a single multicarbon product O2 using sunlight via photocatalysis without the assistance organic additives or electricity remains an unresolved challenge. Here we report bio-abiotic hybrid system with non-photosynthetic, CO2-fixing acetogenic bacterium Sporomusa ovata grown on scalable cost-effective photocatalyst sheet consisting pair particulate semiconductors (La Rh co-doped SrTiO3 (SrTiO3:La,Rh) Mo-doped BiVO4 (BiVO4:Mo)). biohybrid effectively produces acetate (CH3COO–) oxygen (O2) only sunlight, CO2 H2O, achieving solar-to-acetate efficiency 0.7% at ambient conditions (298 K, 1 atm). oxidizes provides electrons hydrogen (H2) S. for selective synthesis CH3COO– from CO2. To demonstrate utility in closed cycle, solar-generated was used directly as feedstock bioelectrochemical generation. These semi-biological approaches thus offer promising strategy sustainably cleanly fixing closing cycle. Conversion fuels chemicals artificial photosynthesis usually requires electricity. Now, is reported bacteria producing H2O sole energy input.