Multienergy Codriven Electron Transfer Across the Nano-Bio Interface for Efficient Photobiocatalysis

Integrating biocatalysis with nanophotocatalysis provides a promising pathway to address the knotty environmental and energy problems. However, energy loss during the transfer of extracellular electrons across the nano-bio interface seriously limits the efficiency of whole-cell-based photobiocatalytic systems. Herein, we demonstrate an integrated multienergy codriven reaction platform containing BaTiO3 nanoparticles (BTO) for harvesting mechanical energy from flowing water to elevate the interfacial electric field, BiVO4 quantum dots (BQD) for harvesting light energy to generate photocarriers, and Geobacter sulfurreducens (GS) for accepting photoelectrons to accomplish the biocatalytic reactions. The synergism between the piezoelectric and photoelectric fields significantly promotes the cross-membrane transport of photoelectrons, contributing to enhanced acetate metabolism, electron transfer, and energy synthesis of GS microbes. Such well-designed BQD/BTO-GS hybrids result in the simultaneous degradation of organic contaminants and detoxification of heavy metals in water with approximately 100% treatment efficiency. The rates of tetracycline (TC) oxidation and Cr(VI) reduction are determined to be 32.8 and 9.58 times higher than that of GS biocatalysis, respectively. Our photobiocatalytic platform exhibits an exceptional apparent quantum yield of 15.54% at 400 nm, exceeding those of most reported abiotic–biotic photobiocatalytic systems. Further investigation verifies the extensibility of our multienergy codriven strategy to the other nano-bio hybrids for enhancing the biocatalytic efficiencies (such as methanogenesis, CO2 fixation, and denitrification), thus offering an inspiring platform for energy and environmental applications. This work not only presents crucial insights into the mechanism of the water-energy nexus but also provides a paradigm for the construction of sustainable reaction systems via multienergy harnessing.