Engineering a solid-state metalloprotein hydrogen evolution catalyst
Date
2020
Authors
Rapson, Trevor D.
Ju, Hyungkuk
Marshall, Paul
Devilla, Rosangela
Jackson, Colin
Giddey, Sarbjit
Sutherland, Tara D.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Abstract
Hydrogen has the potential to play an important role in decarbonising our energy systems. Crucial
to achieving this is the ability to produce clean sources of hydrogen using renewable energy sources.
Currently platinum is commonly used as a hydrogen evolution catalyst, however, the scarcity and
expense of platinum is driving the need to develop non-platinum-based catalysts. Here we report a
protein-based hydrogen evolution catalyst based on a recombinant silk protein from honeybees and
a metal macrocycle, cobalt protoporphyrin (CoPPIX). We enhanced the hydrogen evolution activity
three fold compared to the unmodifed silk protein by varying the coordinating ligands to the metal
centre. Finally, to demonstrate the use of our biological catalyst, we built a proton exchange membrane
(PEM) water electrolysis cell using CoPPIX-silk as the hydrogen evolution catalyst that is able to produce
hydrogen with a 98% Faradaic efciency. This represents an exciting advance towards allowing proteinbased catalysts to be used in electrolysis cells.
Description
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Citation
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Source
Scientific Reports
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
Open Access
License Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
DOI
10.1038/s41598-020-60730-y