@article{HeroldAignerGrilletal.2019, author = {Herold, Heike M. and Aigner, Tamara Bernadette and Grill, Carolin E. and Kr{\"u}ger, Stefanie and Taubert, Andreas and Scheibel, Thomas R.}, title = {SpiderMAEn}, series = {Bioinspired, Biomimetic and Nanobiomaterials}, volume = {8}, journal = {Bioinspired, Biomimetic and Nanobiomaterials}, number = {1}, publisher = {ICE Publishing}, address = {Westminister}, issn = {2045-9858}, doi = {10.1680/jbibn.18.00007}, pages = {99 -- 108}, year = {2019}, abstract = {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.}, language = {en} } @article{KruegerSchwarzeBaumannetal.2018, author = {Kr{\"u}ger, Stefanie and Schwarze, Michael and Baumann, Otto and G{\"u}nter, Christina and Bruns, Michael and K{\"u}bel, Christian and Szabo, Dorothee Vinga and Meinusch, Rafael and Bermudez, Veronica de Zea and Taubert, Andreas}, title = {Bombyx mori silk/titania/gold hybrid materials for photocatalytic water splitting}, series = {Beilstein journal of nanotechnology}, volume = {9}, journal = {Beilstein journal of nanotechnology}, publisher = {Beilstein-Institut zur F{\"o}rderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften}, address = {Frankfurt, Main}, issn = {2190-4286}, doi = {10.3762/bjnano.9.21}, pages = {187 -- 204}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The synthesis, structure, and photocatalytic water splitting performance of two new titania (TiO2)/gold(Au)/Bombyx mori silk hybrid materials are reported. All materials are monoliths with diameters of up to ca. 4.5 cm. The materials are macroscopically homogeneous and porous with surface areas between 170 and 210 m(2)/g. The diameter of the TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) - mainly anatase with a minor fraction of brookite - and the Au NPs are on the order of 5 and 7-18 nm, respectively. Addition of poly(ethylene oxide) to the reaction mixture enables pore size tuning, thus providing access to different materials with different photocatalytic activities. Water splitting experiments using a sunlight simulator and a Xe lamp show that the new hybrid materials are effective water splitting catalysts and produce up to 30 mmol of hydrogen per 24 h. Overall the article demonstrates that the combination of a renewable and robust scaffold such as B. mori silk with a photoactive material provides a promising approach to new monolithic photocatalysts that can easily be recycled and show great potential for application in lightweight devices for green fuel production.}, language = {en} }