Light‐Gated Synthetic Protocells for Plasmon‐Enhanced Chemiosmotic Gradient Generation and ATP Synthesis

Herein, we present a light‐gated protocell model made of plasmonic colloidal capsules (CCs) assembled with bacteriorhodopsin for converting solar energy into electrochemical gradients to drive the synthesis of energy‐storage molecules. This synthetic protocell incorporated an important intrinsic property of noble metal colloidal particles, namely, plasmonic resonance. In particular, the near‐field coupling between adjacent metal nanoparticles gave rise to strongly localized electric fields and resulted in a broad absorption in the whole visible spectra, which in turn promoted the flux of photons to bacteriorhodopsin and accelerated the proton pumping kinetics. The cell‐like potential of this design was further demonstrated by leveraging the outward pumped protons as “chemical signals” for triggering ATP biosynthesis in a coexistent synthetic protocell population. Hereby, we lay the ground work for the engineering of colloidal supraparticle‐based synthetic protocells with higher‐order functionalities. Light‐gated synthetic protocells were built with plasmonic colloidal capsules and bacteriorhodopsin for solar‐driven proton gradient generation and communication‐mediated ATP synthesis. The impact of the colloidal particles’ plasmon resonance on the performance of the cytomimetic system was also studied.