title: Polydopamine as a biomimetic electron gate for artificial photosynthesis.
abstract: We report on the capability of polydopamine (PDA), a mimic of mussel adhesion proteins, as an electron gate as well as a versatile adhesive for mimicking natural photosynthesis. This work demonstrates that PDA accelerates the rate of photoinduced electron transfer from light-harvesting molecules through two-electron and two-proton redox-coupling mechanism. The introduction of PDA as a charge separator significantly increased the efficiency of photochemical water oxidation. Furthermore, simple incorporation of PDA ad-layer on the surface of conducting materials, such as carbon nanotubes, facilitated fast charge separation and oxygen evolution through the synergistic effect of PDA-mediated proton-coupled electron transfer and the high conductivity of the substrate. Our work shows that PDA is an excellent electron acceptor as well as a versatile adhesive; thus, PDA constitutes a new electron gate for harvesting photoinduced electrons and designing artificial photosynthetic systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 335 Science Road, Daejeon 305-701 (Republic of Korea).
authors.forename: Jae Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Minah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Chan Beum
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D032701:Biomimetics; D004579:Electron Transport; D007211:Indoles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010788:Photosynthesis; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D007211:Indoles; D011108:Polymers; D011506:Proteins; C037403:adhesive protein, mussel; C568283:polydopamine; D014867:Water
keywords: biomimetic materials; electron transfer; photosynthesis; polydopamine; water oxidation