Bioinspired photocatalytic transformation of solar energy and water to clean fuels such as hydrogen using semiconductors is among the most promising renewable energy technologies. “Greener” schemes of photocatalytic visible-light hydrogen production along with inorganic material utilize biological structures capable of light-harvesting, water splitting, or proton reduction. We have been developing visible-light-driven nano-bio photocatalysts for hydrogen production based on non-covalent assemblies of the natural and synthetic membrane proton pump and TiO₂ semiconductor nanoparticles. A natural membrane complex of retinal-bearing proton pump bacteriorhodopsin (also known as purple membranes, PM) from the extremophile organism Halobacterium salinarum has been attracting an attention of researchers owing to its exceptional robustness, excellent photophysical properties, and structure−functional elegance. We demonstrated applicability of PMs in sunlight transformation systems constructed from TiO₂, boosted with introduction of reduced graphene oxide rGO, or more recently, constructed as entirely synthetic PM – semiconductor architecture using cell-free synthetic biology approach. Fusing nanotechnology and synthetic biology approaches allows for systemic manipulation at the nanoparticle−bio interface toward directed evolution of energy nanomaterials and nanosystems.

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