TY  - JOUR
A1  - Herold, Heike M.
A1  - Aigner, Tamara Bernadette
A1  - Grill, Carolin E.
A1  - Krüger, Stefanie
A1  - Taubert, Andreas
A1  - Scheibel, Thomas R.
T1  - SpiderMAEn
BT  - recombinant spider silk-based hybrid materials for advanced energy technology
JF  - Bioinspired, Biomimetic and Nanobiomaterials
N2  - A growing energy demand requires new and preferably renewable energy sources. The infinite availability of solar radiation makes its conversion into storable and transportable energy forms attractive for research as well as for the industry. One promising example of a transportable fuel is hydrogen (H-2), making research into eco-friendly hydrogen production meaningful. Here, a hybrid system was developed using newly designed recombinant spider silk protein variants as a template for mineralization with inorganic titanium dioxide and gold. These bioinspired organic/inorganic hybrid materials allow for hydrogen production upon light irradiation. To begin with, recombinant spider silk proteins bearing titanium dioxide and gold-binding moieties were created and processed into structured films. These films were modified with gold and titanium dioxide in order to produce a photocatalyst. Subsequent testing revealed hydrogen production as a result of light-induced hydrolysis of water. Therefore, the novel setup presented here provides access to a new principle of generating advanced hybrid materials for sustainable hydrogen production and depicts a promising platform for further studies on photocatalytic production of hydrogen, the most promising future fuel.
KW  - hybrid materials
KW  - hydrogen
KW  - photocatalysts
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1680/jbibn.18.00007
SN  - 2045-9858
SN  - 2045-9866
VL  - 8
IS  - 1
SP  - 99
EP  - 108
PB  - ICE Publishing
CY  - Westminister
ER  -