(Keynote) Enzymatic Bioelectrocatalysis for Electrosynthesis

Electrosynthesis of commodity and fine chemicals is an emerging area. Bioelectrocatalysis has only recently been considered for this application. This talk will discuss the advantages of bioelectrocatalysis for electrosynthesis with examples ranging from ammonia production to pharmaceutical products and intermediates. In the last 5 years, there have been extensive studies and new materials designed for catalytic reduction of nitrogen to ammonia. This is a challenging reductive transformation for traditional electrocatalysts and photocatalysts, but nature can provide an inspiration. Nitrogenase is the only enzyme known to reduce nitrogen to ammonia. This talk will discuss electroanalytical techniques for studying nitrogenase electrochemistry, including both mediated bioelectrocatalysis and direct bioelectrocatalysis. Then, this talk will discuss electrode materials innovation for interfacing these complex proteins with electrode surfaces as well as using them for electrosynthesis of ammonia as well as other value-added products (i.e. chiral amines, chiral amino acids, etc.). Finally, this talk will discuss the use of enzyme cascades for enzymatic bioelectrosynthesis and synthetic biology for microbial bioelectrosynthesis of ammonia and other value-added products.