Light‐Gated Synthetic Protocells for Plasmon‐Enhanced Chemiosmotic Gradient Generation and Phosphorylation

Here, we present construction of a light‐gated synthetic protocell model made of plasmonic colloidal capsules (CCs) assembled with lipoprotein bacteriorhodopsin for converting solar energy into electrochemical gradients and further driving synthesis of energy storage molecules. Not only did this synthetic protocell incorporate essential features of CCs (such as compartmentalization and semipermeability), but it also assimilated such an important intrinsic property of noble metal colloidal particles as plasmonic resonance. Specially, the near‐field coupling between adjacent metal nanoparticles gave rise to strongly localized electric fields and resulted in a broad absorption in the whole visible spectra, which in turn promoted the flux of photons to bacteriorhodopsin and accelerated the proton pumping kinetics. The cell‐like potential of this design was further demonstrated by leveraging the outward pumped protons as 'chemical signals' for triggering ATP biosynthesis in a coexistent protocell population. Hereby, we lay the ground work for engineering of colloidal supraparticle‐based protocells with higher‐order functionalities.

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