Acceptor photosynthesis

The area of photoinduced electron transfer in LB films has been estabUshed (75). The abiUty to place electron donor and electron acceptor moieties in precise distances allowed the detailed studies of electron-transfer mechanism and provided experimental support for theories (76). This research has been driven by the goal of understanding the elemental processes of photosynthesis. Electron transfer is, however, an elementary process in appHcations such as photoconductivity (77—79), molecular rectification (79—84), etc. 

As we began this chapter, we saw that photosynthesis traditionally is equated with the process of COg fixation, that is, the net synthesis of carbohydrate from COg. Indeed, the capacity to perform net accumulation of carbohydrate from COg distinguishes the phototrophic (and autotrophic) organisms from het-erotrophs. Although animals possess enzymes capable of linking COg to organic acceptors, they cannot achieve a net accumulation of organic material by these reactions. For example, fatty acid biosynthesis is primed by covalent attachment of COg to acetyl-CoA to form malonyl-CoA (Chapter 25). Nevertheless, this fixed COg is liberated in the very next reaction, so no net COg incorporation occurs. 

Figure 4.17 Schematic representation of an ideal system for artificial photosynthesis. The fundamental elements are present a light harvesting system, a triad for charge separation (D—P—A, Donor—Primary acceptor—Acceptor), a...

The appearance on the surface of any acceptor particles resulting in the negative charging of the surface and hence in the lowering of the Fermi level at the surface (in an increase of es- at v = const) must lead, according to (95) or (98), to the weakening of the photocatalytic effect. This is what actually occurs in the photosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide [jsee references (65-67, 71-73, 77)]. 

If the conditions for Forster transfer are not applicable, then the theory must be extended. There is recently experimental evidence that coherent energy transfer participates in photosynthesis [74, 75], In this case, the participating molecules are very close together. The excited state of the donor does not completely relax to the Boltzmann distribution before the energy can be shared with the acceptor, and the transfer can no longer be described by a Forster mechanism. We will not discuss this case. There has been active discussion of coherent transfer and very strong interactions in the literature for a longer time [69], and references can be found in some more recent papers [70-72, 76, 77],... 

Integration of PS II and PS I via cyt b6f in chloroplasts (Z scheme of photosynthesis). Pheo a represents pheophytin pQA and pQB represent phytoquinone A and B, respectively A, and At represent electron acceptor chlorophylls, respectively pc represents plastocyanin and Fd represents ferridoxin. 

The different types of quinones active in photosynthesis are being used as electron acceptors in solar cells. The compounds such as Fd and NADP could also be used as electron/proton acceptors in the photoelectrochemical cells. Several researchers have attempted the same approach with a combination of two or more solid-state junctions or semiconductor-electrolyte junctions using bulk materials and powders. Here, the semiconductors can be chosen to carry out either oxygen- or hydrogen-evolving photocatalysis based on the semiconductor electronic band structure. 

Most of the interest in mimicing aspects of photosynthesis has centered on a wide variety of model systems for electron transfer. Among the early studies were experiments involving photoinduced electron transfer in solution from chlorophyll a to p-benzoquinone (21, 22) which has been shown to occur via the excited triplet state of chlorophyll a. However, these solution studies are not very good models of the in vivo reaction center because the in vivo reaction occurs from the excited singlet state and the donor and acceptor are held at a fixed relationship to each other in the reaction-center protein. 

The basis of photosynthesis - consecutive chain of redox reactions, during which electrons are transferred from donor-reducer to acceptor-oxidizer with the formation of reduced compounds (carbohydrates) and oxygen isolation. 

Long-range electron transfer reactions have attracted attention relative to the initial stages of photosynthesis, and special interest has been focused on the design of noncovalently assembled donor-acceptor arrays. Dendrimers with spatially isolated porphyrin cores are potential motifs for investigating such long-range electron transfer reactions [12],... 

Figure 12.8 The Z scheme, an overview of the flow of electrons during the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis. ED and EA refer to the electron donors and acceptors of the two photosystems, respectively...

Figure 12.12 Building blocks of an artificial photosynthesis system for hydrogen production using a chromophore (C), an electron acceptor (A) and a sacrificial donor(D)...

Figure 10.3 Z-scheme of oxygenic photosynthesis in green algae and cyanobacteria, showing links to hydrogenase. Q (plastoquinone) and X (an iron-sulfur cluster) are electron acceptors from photosystems II and I, respectively.The two hydrogenases shown are the NADP-dependent bidirectional hydrogenase and a ferredoxin-dependent enzyme.

Sulfate reducing bacteria were not antecedents of photosynthetic bacteria, but rather evolved from ancestral types which were photosynthetic bacteria. Although initially surprising, this evolntionary relationship is consistent with the idea that the accumulation of sulfate, the obligatory terminal electron acceptor for the sulfate reducing bacteria, was the resnlt of bacterial photosynthesis. 

We examine here possible structural effects that may result from or accompany the generation of the primary photoproducts, and speculate about the consequences of concomitant changes in distances,conformations, relative orientations and charges on the electronic profiles of and interactions between the BChls, BPheos and their radicals. Because the primary events in green plant photosynthesis also involve a series of chlorophyll donors and acceptors ( ), similar trends should therefore prevail for chlorophyll radicals as well. Furthermore, radicals of porphyrins and hydroporphyrins (saturated porphyrins such as chlorins and isobacteriochlorins) have been... 

Recently it has been reported (3 ) that in a triad molecule where a porphyrin is juxtaposed between a carotenoid and a quinone, a charge transfer donor-acceptor pair with a lifetime similar to that found experimentally in biological systems was produced on light irradiation. It was suggested that an electrical potential similar to the type developed in this donor-acceptor pair may be important in driving the chemical reactions in natural photosynthesis. 

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