Proton relay membrane proteins

In these two Ni-functionalized CNT materials, the Ni-molecular catalyst is located at the crossroads of the three interpenetrated networks allowing percolation of protons (the Nafion membrane), hydrogen (the pores in the gas diffusion layer), and electrons (the carbon fibers of the gas diffusion layer relayed by the conducting CNTs). In a way and even if it is not as well defined as in the protein, the catalyst environment in this membrane-electrode assembly reproduces that found in the active sites of hydrogenases buried into the polypeptidic framework but connected to the surfece of the protein via a gas diffusion channel, a network of hydrogen-bonded amino acids for proton transport and the array of electrontransferring iron-sulfur clusters. 

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