(602at) Scalable Biosynthesis of Quantum Dots for Bioenergy Applications

most important factors in the future economic prosperity of the United States. Solar energy is one of

the most promising routes to develop a new, domestic, source of energy. While current solar cells

generate electrical power, we need a chemical route to store large amounts of energy. The direct

conversion of solar energy to a chemical fuel (hydrogen) by splitting water would enable large scale

energy storage and create a clean burning fuel for transportation. The possible commercial

applications are as large as the current power and fuel markets. The activity of the nanoparticle

catalysts utilized for this water-splitting reaction is dictated by their physical size, shape, structure,

and their chemical composition. Thus it is imperative that we develop synthesize routes that enable

control over all of these parameters. We have created a unique approach to environmentally benign,

in situ semiconductor nanoparticle biosynthesis from the gram-negative bacteria Stenotrophomonas

maltophilia. S. maltophilia is able to generate novel nanoparticles of the relevant materials unable to

by synthesized by conventional methods, but little is currently known regarding how to control the

chemical and physical attributes of the resulting particles from biosynthesis. We will describe our recent efforts to synthesize novel nanostructured materials from S. maltophilia, including a detailed description of their physical properties determined using electron microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy. Applications of the synthesized nanoparticles to photocatalysis will also be discussed.