/rasei/ en /rasei/2025/06/09/understanding-light-driven-production-hydrogen-could-unlock-future-insights-harnessing <span>Understanding light-driven production of hydrogen could unlock future insights for harnessing light for chemistry</span> <span><span>Daniel Morton</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-06-09T10:27:04-06:00" title="Monday, June 9, 2025 - 10:27">Mon, 06/09/2025 - 10:27</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/rasei/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-06/2025_05_Dukovic_Screen.jpg?h=8f74817f&amp;itok=nHL6908e" width="1200" height="800" alt="illustration of the hybrid catalyst reaction to produce hydrogen"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/rasei/taxonomy/term/177"> News </a> <a href="/rasei/taxonomy/term/170"> Publication Highlight </a> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-tags" itemprop="keywords"> <span class="visually-hidden">Tags:</span> <div class="ucb-article-tag-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-tags"></i> </div> <a href="/rasei/taxonomy/term/281" hreflang="en">Catalysis</a> <a href="/rasei/taxonomy/term/160" hreflang="en">Dukovic</a> <a href="/rasei/taxonomy/term/269" hreflang="en">Energy Applications</a> <a href="/rasei/taxonomy/term/154" hreflang="en">King</a> </div> <a href="/rasei/our-community">Daniel Morton</a> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p class="hero">Light to fuel: clean hydrogen production. Improved understanding of the light-driven production of hydrogen holds the promise not just to make the reaction more efficient in producing a fuel, but also to offer a framework to better understand future light-driven chemistries.&nbsp;</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default 3"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div> <div class="align-right image_style-small_500px_25_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle small_500px_25_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/rasei/sites/default/files/styles/small_500px_25_display_size_/public/2025-06/Researchers.png?itok=AMkHdHgK" width="375" height="283" alt="Profile pictures of Gordana Dukovic and Paul King"> </div> </div> <p>Many chemical reactions require the input of energy to <a rel="nofollow">activate</a> the transformation. This can often be in the form of heat, or chemical energy. One of the most efficient ways of introducing energy into a reaction is by using light. If you don’t have to heat up a reaction, or add extra chemicals to it, and instead shine a light on it, you can save significant energy. However, it can be difficult to control and optimize light-driven reactions. This research, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2025.102594" rel="nofollow">just published in Chem</a>, is a collaboration between the <a href="/lab/dukovicgroup/" rel="nofollow">Dukovic Group</a> at the 91¸£ÀûÉç (91¸£ÀûÉç) and the <a href="https://research-hub.nrel.gov/en/persons/paul-king" rel="nofollow">King Group</a> at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and provides a holistic understanding of the light-driven production of hydrogen gas using a nanocrystal-enzyme complex as the catalyst, and a computational framework that can be used more generally to understand other light-driven chemical reactions in the future. The code for this model is being made available in the supplementary documents of this article.&nbsp;</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default 3"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p><span>Chemical catalysis is a special type of reaction, one that increases the speed of a transformation and often reduces the amount of waste produced by the process. Think of it like an assembly line. The catalyst is like a station on the line, bringing together two or more components to create a new product that is then passed along. Without the catalyst the components might, by chance, bump together and form the desired product, but it will be much slower, and much less frequent. The catalyst remains unchanged in the process and can repeat the transformation many times.&nbsp;</span></p> <div class="align-right image_style-medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/rasei/sites/default/files/styles/medium_750px_50_display_size_/public/2025-06/Overall.png?itok=swecEmsu" width="750" height="855" alt="Overview of different types of catalysis"> </div> </div> <p>Enzymes are Nature’s catalysts. On the cellular level, whenever a change needs to happen, an enzyme is usually involved. The speed of an enzyme, and its selectivity, that is its ability to only react with the desired molecules out of the soup of molecules present in a typical cell, is fantastic. Enzymes are often superior to catalysts we can make in a lab, and as such, much research has gone into finding ways to harness such enzymes to do reactions for us in the lab. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as just grabbing some enzyme out of a cell. Enzymes often require specific environments and partners to react with.</p><p><span>Redox enzymes are a special, and particularly attractive, class of enzymes. They are capable of adding, or removing, an electron from a chemical reaction, a key step in the production of hydrogen gas. Redox enzymes rarely exist by themselves. Returning to the assembly line analogy, to get a station that can add the electrons to the protons (H⁺) to make hydrogen gas, many other stations need to be added before in a specific order. In a cell there is a chain of enzymes that pass the electrons along before the reaction can take place.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span>This is where the artificial component comes in. The nanocrystal, which, when exposed to light, releases an electron, replaces the long chain of enzymes and can directly transfer an electron to the enzyme. So, you reduce your assembly line down from a chain of many stations to just