Organic Materials for Biohybrid Photocatalysis and Photoelectrochemical Devices

The integration of biological catalysts with organic light-harvesting materials represents a rapidly advancing strategy for sustainable solar-to-chemical energy conversion. Recent advances demonstrate that photoexcited organic materials can effectively activate redox enzymes and whole-cell systems to catalyze fuel-forming reactions such as H2 evolution and CO2 fixation as well as selective oxidations and chiral transformations under mild conditions. This review summarizes recent advances in semiartificial photosynthesis driven by organic materials and presents a systematic overview of the major classes involved. In particular, it focuses on a) organic photosensitizers including molecular organic photosensitizers, carbon dots, graphene, carbon nitride, and organic aggregation nanoparticles (e.g., polymer dots/Pdots, molecule nanoparticles) as well as b) organic redox mediators. These materials are evaluated in terms of their photophysical properties, compatibility with biocatalysts, and their roles in photoinduced charge generation, charge separation, and interfacial electron transfer between abiotic and biotic components. Emerging trends toward mediator-free and water-driven systems, challenges related to photostability, biocompatibility, as well as paired redox catalysis generating value-added products are also discussed. Additionally, the effects of the sacrificial electron donor on biohybrid performance and development of biohybrid photoelectrochemical catalysis have been evaluated. Finally, this review aims to highlight the key scientific and technological questions that must be addressed to advance the field toward efficient, scalable, and environmentally benign biohybrid photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical platforms.