Engineered conductive pili enable high-efficiency photosynthetic electron extraction in biophotovoltaics (opens in new tab)

The efficient extraction of electrons from photosynthetic microorganisms remains a critical challenge in living biophotovoltaics (BPV). While nanomaterials can facilitate electron transport, their stochastic adsorption leads to inefficient material-wasteful interfaces. Here, we demonstrate a controllable approach to direct the targeted assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) onto the type IV pili of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 by using a genetically encoded gold-binding peptide. This approach c...