Microfluidics for Artificial Photosynthesis

of Glucose using Sunlight

Xuming Zhang

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

地点: 物理楼西412会议室

时间：2015年8月20日（周四）上午10:00-11:30

Food production relies on the natural photosynthesis (NP) in green

plants but its energy efficiency is typically below 1%. In fact, the

NP is naturally a microfluidic system as it occurs in microscale

chloroplasts filled with fluids, inferring the feasibility to be

mimicked by microfluidic structures. This work reports our recent

efforts to develop integrated microchips and large solar reactors

for the artificial photosynthesis (AP) of glucose from CO2 using

sunlight. In conceptual design, a solar reactor is set up to produce

the carbohydrates (like glucose, starch) continuously by

consuming only CO2, H2O and sunlight energy. Inside the reactor,

a semiconductor photocatalyst rGO/CdS/TiO2 is used to capture

sunlight and transfers excited electrons to a non-enzymatic

electron mediator (denoted as M) for generation of NADPH. In

experiment, 25% of NADP+ is finally converted into NADPH in the

test. Then we follow the Calvin Cycle in the NP to enzymatically

generate carbohydrates using microfluidic chips that have

different regions to realize the three phases of reaction. For the

large reactor, though the final result is not done yet, we expect to

produce glucose by ~1 kg/h using a single solar reactor. This work

may enable to produce basic food materials like sugar and starch

using factory-like production lines, and could be applied equally to

the production of biofuel.

Xuming Zhang received BEng degree in Precision Mechanical Engineering

from the University of Science & Technology of China (USTC) in 1994, and Ph.D.

degree from School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang

Technological University (NTU) in 2006. He is currently an associate professor

with Department of Applied Physics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He

has published more than 60 journal papers and has co-authored one book on

photonic MEMS. His research interests cover mainly microfluidics, sensors

and green energy

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