Tailoring Quantum Dot Sizes for Optimal Photoinduced Catalytic Activation of Nitrogenase

Many efforts have been directed towards elucidating the nitrogenase structure, its biocatalytic activity, and methods to artificially activate it by external stimuli. Here, we investigated how semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) with sizes ranging between 2.3–3.5 nm form nano‐biohybrids with the nitrogenase enzyme and enable its photoinduced biocatalytic activity. We examined two homogenously synthesized quantum dots (QDs), CdS, CdSe, and two nitrogenase variants, the wild‐type and a cysteine‐mutated. We show that the cysteine‐mutated variant does not enhance the hydrogen generation amounts, as compared with the wild type. Nevertheless, we show that the 2.3 nm‐sized CdSe NPs facilitate an eightfold increase compared with larger CdSe NPs. The obtained results were investigated using electrochemical techniques, transmission electron microscopy, and further confirmed by time‐resolved spectroscopic measurements, which allow us to determine the electron tranfer rate constant (kET) of the different configurations. Size matters! In this work, we examined how the sizes of nanomaterials affect the light‐induced electron transfer process with the nitrogenase enzyme. We observed that while 2.3 nm CdSe quantum dots (QDs) are utilized for the photocatalytic hydrogen generation process, an eight‐fold increase can be gained compared with larger‐sized QDs.