August 13, 2026 Layered nano-biohybrid uses sunlight, air and water to make hydrogen peroxide by Argonne National Laboratory edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Robert Egan Lisa Lock Scientific Editor Meet our editorial team Behind our editorial process Robert Egan Senior Editor Meet our editorial team Behind our editorial process Editors' notes This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread The GIST Add as preferred source Featured on the cover of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, this illustration depicts a hybrid material combining a light-absorbing biological membrane with a semiconductor to boost chemical production. led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has developed a new material that combines inorganic material with biological components to produce hydrogen peroxide more efficiently.
Hydrogen peroxide is commonly used for disinfecting, bleaching and whitening in a variety of settings, from manufacturing to the medicine cabinet. However, producing it is expensive and energy-intensive. The research, which also included scientists from Japan's Photon Science Innovation Center and Tohoku University, used a technology called nanoarchitectonics to convert sunlight, air and water into the valuable chemical.
The results are detailed in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Nanoarchitectonics uses nanoscale building blocks to assemble materials into functional architectures, often drawing inspiration from living systems. "Nanoarchitectonics is on par with artificial intelligence and quantum information science as one of the most important technologies of the 21st century," said Jinhyeong Jang, a postdoctoral appointee at Argonne and lead author of the paper.
"Our work demonstrates that we can use it to tune living systems for functional purposes." Visual abstract. al Society (2026). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6c02561 A biohybrid built in layers The material the researchers developed is based on layered nanosheets about 200 nanometers thick, approximately 500 times thinner than a human hair. The layers form a hybrid system: Bismuth oxychloride, a synthetic semiconducting material, combines with patches of a purple membrane made from a naturally occurring, light-absorbing biological material derived from salt-loving microorganisms called archaea.
When light shines on this material, the purple membrane acts like a biological solar panel, capturing light energy. It then drives the movement of protons and electrons at the interface with the bismuth oxychloride. This process helps the semiconductor convert oxygen from the air and water into hydrogen peroxide.
The hybrid material produced more than five times as much hydrogen peroxide as the semiconductor alone. "Our system operates at ambient conditions and uses only inexpensive, abundant materials," said Elena Rozhkova, a scientist at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne. "If we were to do the same reaction industrially, it would require high-energy input and more complex catalytic systems.
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