Perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions create a beneficial O2 microenvironment in N2-fixing biological | inorganic hybrid
By Lu, Shengtao; Rodrigues, Roselyn M.; Huang, Shuyuan; Estabrook, Daniel A.; Chapman, John O.; Guan, Xun; Sletten, Ellen M.; Liu, Chong
Published in Chem Catalysis
2021
Abstract
Summary Powered by renewable electricity, biological | inorganic hybrids employ water-splitting electrocatalysis and generate H2 as reducing equivalents for microbial catalysis. The approach integrates the beauty of biocatalysis with the energy efficiency of inorganic materials for sustainable chemical production. Yet a successful integration requires delicate control of the hybrid's extracellular chemical environment. Such an argument is evident in the exemplary case of O2 because biocatalysis has a stringent requirement of O2, but the electrocatalysis may inadvertently perturb the oxidative pressure of biological moieties. Here we report that the addition of perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions promotes a biocompatible O2 microenvironment in an O2-sensitive N2-fixing biological | inorganic hybrid. Langmuir-type nonspecific binding between bacteria and nanoemulsions facilitates O2 transport in a bacterial microenvironment and leads to a 250% increase in efficiency for organic fertilizers within 120 h. Controlling the biological microenvironment with nanomaterials heralds a general approach accommodating the compatibility in biological | inorganic hybrids.