MAPTech scientists have paired a bismuth vanadate photoanode with carbon-dioxide-hungry microbes in a microbial electrosynthesis cell, boosting solar-to-acetate conversion and pointing to an efficient route for recycling CO₂ into clean fuels.
“We obtained solar-to-acetate conversion efficiency of 1.65 percent, the highest reported so far,” says Pascal Saikaly.
The photoanode absorbs a broader slice of sunlight than earlier materials, slashing the energy needed for the oxygen-evolution reaction and lifting overall cell performance to eight times the efficiency of natural photosynthesis. The team now aims to test the system under real sunlight and gauge how well the biocatalysts cope with intermittent renewable power.