This application relates to a photoactive product comprising: a catechol-containing compound, an amine-containing polymer, and photoactive material. The photoactive product can act as a photocatalyst and can be used in photoelectrodes for use in, for example, photoelectrochemical analyte sensing, including biosensing. The photoelectrodes modified with hybrid organic/inorganic materials can provide increased light absorption and charge separation, binding sites for attaching biorecognition probes, and built-in film-forming properties for well-adhered and uniform photoactive frameworks on the collector electrodes.

Biomineralization—the synthesis of inorganic materials using proteins—has recently gained interest as a low cost, green route for the production of metal chalcogenide semiconductor nanocrystals. Typical biomineralization approaches rely on proteins or biomolecules identified from organisms which possess a native biomineralization response. Disclosed herein is an alternative biomineralization approach for synthesizing metal chalcogenide nanocrystals which uses an artificially designed de novo protein. De novo proteins are non-natural proteins, allowing for facile modification of the protein through the tuning of amino acids within the sequence. This de novo protein was employed to produce size-controlled populations of semiconductor nanocrystals, with properties consistent with those produced using traditional routes.

An amphiphilic fusion protein has a formula S/I—X—H.sub.1—H.sub.2, wherein S— is a solubilizing moiety, I— is an insolubilizing moiety, —X— is a peptide sequence comprising a proteolytic or chemical cleavage site, —H.sub.1— is a hydrophilic peptide, and —H.sub.2 is a hydrophobic peptide.

The problem of the present invention is to provide an exhaust gas purifying agent for automobiles which is capable of improving the automobile fuel mileage as well as purifying the exhaust gas of the automobiles, and further extending the effective duration of the exhaust gas purifying agent for automobiles by a simple method of spraying the exhaust gas purifying agent for automobiles using only natural ingredients on the air filter. The problem of the present invention can be solved by using a liquid containing a) tourmaline fine powder, b) porous material fine powder, c) fucoidan extracted from seaweeds, d) amino peptides and/or alginic acids extracted from seaweeds in water as the exhaust gas purifying agent for automobiles by spraying on the air filter of automobiles.

The problem of the present invention is to provide an exhaust gas purifying agent for automobiles which is capable of improving the automobile fuel mileage as well as purifying the exhaust gas of the automobiles, and further extending the effective duration of the exhaust gas purifying agent for automobiles by a simple method of spraying the exhaust gas purifying agent for automobiles using only natural ingredients on the air filter.

The problem of the present invention can be solved by using a liquid containing a) tourmaline fine powder, b) porous material fine powder, c) fucoidan extracted from seaweeds, d) amino peptides and/or alginic acids extracted from seaweeds in water as the exhaust as purifying agent for automobiles by spraying on the air filter of automobiles.

This application relates to a photoactive product comprising: a catechol-containing compound, an amine-containing polymer, and photoactive material. The photoactive product can act as a photocatalyst and can be used in photoelectrodes for use in, for example, photoelectrochemical analyte sensing, including biosensing. The photoelectrodes modified with hybrid organic/inorganic materials can provide increased light absorption and charge separation, binding sites for attaching biorecognition probes, and built-in film-forming properties for well-adhered and uniform photoactive frameworks on the collector electrodes.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to an efficient entirely man-made nanobio hybrid fabricated through cell-free expression of transmembrane proton pump followed by assembly of the synthetic protein architecture with semiconductor nanoparticles for photocatalytic H.sub.2 evolution. The system produces H.sub.2 at a turnover rate of 240 ?mol of H.sub.2 (?mol protein).sup.?1 h.sup.?1 under green and 17.74 mmol of H.sub.2 (?mol protein).sup.?1 h.sup.?1 under white light at ambient conditions, in water at neutral pH with methanol as a sacrificial electron donor. Robsutness and flexibility of this approach allows for systemic manipulation at nanoparticle-bio interface toward directed evolution of energy materials and devices.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to an efficient entirely man-made nanobio hybrid fabricated through cell-free expression of transmembrane proton pump followed by assembly of the synthetic protein architecture with semiconductor nanoparticles for photocatalytic H.sub.2 evolution. The system produces H.sub.2 at a turnover rate of 240 ?mol of H.sub.2 (?mol protein).sup.?1 h.sup.?1 under green and 17.74 mmol of H.sub.2 (?mol protein).sup.?1 h.sup.?1 under white light at ambient conditions, in water at neutral pH with methanol as a sacrificial electron donor. Robsutness and flexibility of this approach allows for systemic manipulation at nanoparticle-bio interface toward directed evolution of energy materials and devices.

This invention describes the methodology to produce solid heterogeneous chiral organocatalysts that can be used in condensation reactions. The catalysts can be recovered in a simple manner by filtration and can also be reused.

An optically active compound production method using a column reactor, a column for column reactor is charged with asymmetric catalyst particles to produce the column reactor, and reaction compound is introduced into column reactor to bring reaction compound into contact with asymmetric catalyst particles, whereby reaction compound is converted to optically active compound. Asymmetric catalyst particles are preferably resin particles that are prepared from a monomer composition containing a proline derivative monomer having unsaturated bond and radical polymerization initiator and serve as catalyst for enamine mechanism reaction. Asymmetric catalyst particles are preferably resin particles prepared by micro-channel method including injecting monomer composition into continuous phase to thereby form droplets of monomer composition in continuous phase and then heating droplets to cause proline derivative monomer having an unsaturated bond to undergo radical polymerization.