Tailoring Quantum Dot Sizes for Optimal Photoinduced Catalytic Activation of Nitrogenase

Many efforts have been directed towards elucidating the nitrogenase structure, its biocatalytic activity, and methods to artificially activate it by external stimuli. Here, we investigated how semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) with sizes ranging between 2.3-3.5 nm form nano-biohybrids with the nitrogenase enzyme and enable its photoinduced biocatalytic activity. We examined two homogenously synthesized quantum dots (QDs), CdS, CdSe, and two...