PHOTOlac An MCO as ultimate artificial photosynthetic mimic

MCOs are particularly robust copper containing biomolecules with distinctive spectroscopic features behaving as a biological capacitor where up to 4e- and 4H+ are transiently stored. The challenging and ambitious goal of this project is using light to trigger ET in MCO from discrete surface grafting points, to study the intra-molecular ET, the repartition of the electrons on the 4 CuII ions and mechanistic aspects of the O2+4e-+4H+<->2H2O (reversible) reactions. The system (a fungal laccase) will be studied with state of the art spectroscopic techniques (UV/VIS, EPR, stopped-flow) and laser flash photolysis. This project will benefit from the cumulated experience of the two teams in : i) production of laccase variants at a g.L-1 scale ensuring a comfortable physico-chemical characterization of enzymes; ii) enzyme modification and precise grafting of sensitizers/probes at the surface; iii) advanced photophysics and kinetic data analysis; iv) employment of MCO as terminal oxidant in oxidative photocatalysis.