Natural photosynthesis holds great potential to generate clean electricity from solar energy. In order to utilize this process for power generation, it is necessary to rewire photosynthetic electron transport chains (PETCs) of living photosynthetic organisms to redirect more electron flux toward an extracellular electrode. In this study, a semi‐artificial rewiring strategy, which use a water‐soluble fullerene derivative to capture electrons from PETCs and donate them for electrical current generation, is proposed. A positively charged fullerene derivative, functionalized with N,N‐dimethyl pyrrolidinium iodide, is found to be efficiently taken up by the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The distribution of this fullerene derivative near the thylakoid membrane, as well as site‐specific inhibitor assays and transient absorption spectroscopy, suggest that it can directly interact with the redox centers in the PETCs, particularly the acceptor side of photosystem I (PSI). The internalized fullerene derivatives facilitate the extraction of photosynthetic electrons and significantly enhance the photocurrent density of Synechocystis by approximately tenfold. This work opens up new possibility for the application of fullerenes as an excellent 3D electron carrier in living biophotovoltaics.

中文翻译：

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通过水溶性富勒烯衍生物重新布线光合作用用于太阳能发电

自然光合作用具有利用太阳能产生清洁电力的巨大潜力。为了利用这一过程发电，有必要重新连接活体光合生物的光合电子传输链（PETC），以将更多的电子通量重定向到细胞外电极。在这项研究中，提出了一种半人工重新布线策略，该策略使用水溶性富勒烯衍生物从 PETC 捕获电子并将其用于产生电流。带正电荷的富勒烯衍生物，经功能化氮,氮‐二甲基吡咯烷鎓碘化物，被发现可被蓝藻有效吸收集胞藻属sp。 PCC 6803。这种富勒烯衍生物在类囊体膜附近的分布，以及位点特异性抑制剂测定和瞬态吸收光谱表明，它可以直接与 PETC 中的氧化还原中心相互作用，特别是光系统 I (PSI) 的受体侧）。内化的富勒烯衍生物有利于光合电子的提取并显着提高光电流密度集胞藻属大约十倍。这项工作为富勒烯作为优秀的3D电子载体在生物光伏中的应用开辟了新的可能性。