Bioinspiration toward efficient photosynthetic systems: From biohybrids to biomimetics

Summary Mimicking the natural photosynthetic process, the artificial photosynthesis for CO2 conversion based on chemical photocatalyst has depicted an excellent blueprint for achieving artificial carbon cycle. However, the current artificial chemical photocatalysts do not have the upper hand in biological systems regarding the activity and selectivity for conversion of CO2 to multi-carbon products. In this regard, natural photosynthesis could offer numerous sources of bioinspiration for artificial chemical photocatalysts to solve their bottlenecks. In this perspective, we highlight the recent successes in this emerging field to show the development of bioinspired photosynthetic systems from semi-artificial photosynthetic biohybrids to biomimetic photocatalytic systems. Meanwhile, the common fundamentals behind various designed biohybrids and biomimetic systems are elucidated. Toward future development, we discuss the challenges and opportunities in the research field.