Microbial biofilms as living photoconductors due to ultrafast electron transfer in cytochrome OmcS nanowires

Abstract

Despite enormous potential of solar-driven biocatalysis, most living systems lack photoactive proteins and require toxic and expensive synthetic materials limiting the performance. Here, a class of natural photoconductors is demonstrated through sub-picosecond heme-to-heme electron transfer in bacteria-produced protein nanowires.