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Biosynthetic Approaches towards the Design of Artificial Hydrogen‐Evolution Catalysts
Author(s) -
Prasad Pallavi,
Selvan Dhanashree,
Chakraborty Saumen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.202001338
Subject(s) - catalysis , hydrogenase , cofactor , rubredoxin , chemistry , combinatorial chemistry , hydrogen , reactivity (psychology) , protein engineering , protein design , enzyme , nanotechnology , materials science , organic chemistry , protein structure , biochemistry , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
Hydrogen is a clean and sustainable form of fuel that can minimize our heavy dependence on fossil fuels as the primary energy source. The need of finding greener ways to generate H 2 gas has ignited interest in the research community to synthesize catalysts that can produce H 2 by the reduction of H + . The natural H 2 producing enzymes hydrogenases have served as an inspiration to produce catalytic metal centers akin to these native enzymes. In this article we describe recent advances in the design of a unique class of artificial hydrogen evolving catalysts that combine the features of the active site metal(s) surrounded by a polypeptide component. The examples of these biosynthetic catalysts discussed here include i) assemblies of synthetic cofactors with native proteins; ii) peptide‐appended synthetic complexes; iii) substitution of native cofactors with non‐native cofactors; iv) metal substitution from rubredoxin; and v) a reengineered Cu storage protein into a Ni binding protein. Aspects of key design considerations in the construction of these artificial biocatalysts and insights gained into their chemical reactivity are discussed.