Imaging shows how solar-powered microbes turn carbon dioxide into bioplastic

A scanning electron microscopy image shows bacterium Ralstonia eutropha cells on top of a bismuth vanadate semiconductor. Credit: Cornell University

When considering ways to sustainably generate environmentally friendly products, bacteria might not immediately spring to mind.

However, in recent years scientists have created microbe-semiconductor biohybrids that merge the biosynthetic power of living systems with the ability of semiconductors to harvest light. These microorganisms use to convert carbon dioxide into value-added chemical products, such as bioplastics and biofuels. But how that energy transport occurs in such a tiny, complex system, and whether the process can be improved, is still unclear.

Cornell researchers have developed a multimodal platform to image these biohybrids with , to better

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