Hierarchical ZnIn2S4 microspheres as photocatalyst for boosting the selective biohydrogenation of furfural into furfuryl alcohol under visible light irradiation

Abstract

Photocatalyst-enzyme coupling process for visible light driven biotransformation holds promise in producing solar chemicals. In this work, aiming to produce furfuryl alcohol, the important bulk chemical that is typically derived from renewable lignocellulose, a highly selective furfural hydrogenation process is proposed by coordinating the alcohol dehydrogenase with the ZnIn2S4 assistant reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotid (NADH) regeneration. Results indicated that under visible light irradiation, the hierarchical ZnIn2S4 microspheres exhibited excellent holes and electrons separating efficiency, affording to high NADH regeneration (yield of 90.2±3.28%). When adopting the photo-biocoupled reduction process in furfural transformation, a furfuryl alcohol yield of 79.4±1.95% was achieved under the optimized conditions. The photocatalyst-enzyme coupling process also showed good stability, exceeding 70% of catalytic activity was reserved after reusing the catalysts for 10 cycles. The novel photo-biocoupled system showed promising in extending to the highly selective hydrogenation of other biochemicals from lignocelluloses.

Keywords

• NADH regeneration
• Photobiocatalysis
• Furfural
• Furfuryl alcohol
• Selective hydrogenation