Enhanced Bioenergy Transformation by Metal-free Electrozyme Based Mitochondrion Nanoarchitectonics

Herein, we couple a synthetic electrozyme in a supramolecule-assembled nanoarchitecture to achieve enhanced bioenergy transformation by mimicking mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Different from the natural counterpart, the metal-free electrozyme is a semiconducting polymer deposited on an electrode. The wellmatched electrocatalytic property of the electrozyme permits oxidization of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) to release protons under a much lower electric potential. As a consequence, the generated proton gradient drives rotary catalysis of adenosine 5 '-triphosphate (ATP) synthase reconstituted in a lipid membrane to produce ATP. Remarkably, electrochemical bioenergy conversion of NADH to ATP is accomplished with much higher efficiency in such a bio-like system compared with the natural mitochondria. This work integrates synthetic and natural catalytic chemistry to facilitate enhanced bioenergy transformation, thereby greatly improving prospects in ATP-fueled bioapplications.