Proposal for a high-efficiency voltage converter using semiconductor electrochemistry inspired by biological electron bifurcation

Life invented many marvelous molecular machines. Electron bifurcating enzymes harvest electrons from a two-electron donor, using the resulting electrons to reduce separate one-electron acceptors. These electron transfers are coupled, such that one electron moves thermodynamically uphill, leveraging downhill flow of the other electron. Remarkably, electron bifurcating enzymes operate nearly reversibly, allowing near perfect energy conversion efficiency. Recently, a preferred energy landscape was proposed that enables electron bifurcation by disabling short-circuit reactions that would result in all electrons flowing downhill. This energy landscape may be found in the band bending within np semiconductor junctions, suggesting that electron bifurcation could be mimicked using semiconductor electrochemistry. How would such a device work, and how might it perform?