Chromophores, chlorophyll

A reconstruction of the orientation distribution function using the Maximum Entropy Formalism (4) reveals that the chlorophyll chromophores are most likely to be oriented with their planes perpendicular to the bilayer plane, see fig.6. 

Porphyrins and chlorophylls are the most widespread natural pigments. They are associated with the energy-converting processes of respiration and photosynthesis in living organisms, and the synthesis of specific porphyrin derivatives is often motivated by the desire to perform similar processes in the test tube. The structurally and biosynthetically related corrins (e.g. vitamin B,j) catalyze alkylations and rearrangements of carbon skeletons via organocobalt intermediates. The biosyntheses of these chromophores are also of topical interest. 

Chlorophyll a (L.P. Vernon, 1966) contains an unsymmetrical porphyrin chromophore with two special features the double bond between C-17 and C-18 is hydrogenated and carhon atoms 13 and 15 hear a carboxylated, isocyclic cyclopentanone ting E. 

Natural Sensitizing Dyes and Photodynamic Therapy. The chlorophylls are, of course, among the natural sensitizers for photosynthesis. Considerable iaterest exists ia chlorophyll and related pigments as photosensitizers ia biology and medicine (75), isomeric retinal chromophores as visual pigments (76,77), and the use of synthetic photosensitizers ia neurobiology (9), hematology (78), and photodynamic therapy (79). 

Chlorophyll a, the green photosynthesis pigment, is the prototype of the chlorin (2,3-dihydro-porphyrin) class of products. It was first isolated by Willstatter1 at the turn of the century. The common structural unit in this class is the chlorin framework named after chlorophyll. The chromophore with a partially saturated pyrrole ring, which is formally derived from the completely unsaturated porphyrin, is less symmetric than the latter and systematically named according to IUPAC nomenclature as 2,3-dihydroporphyrin. 

Transformations which alter the bacteriochlorin chromophore are quite rare. An important reaction in the structural elucidation of the bacteriochlorophylls is the dehydrogenation to chlorophyll derivatives. Thus, bacteriopyromethylpheophorbide a (1) can be smoothly dehydrogenated with 3,4,5,6-tetrachloro-l,2-benzoquinone to the corresponding chlorin 3-acetyl-pyromethylpheophorbide a (2) in high yield.1 la,b... 

Organized molecular assemblies containing redox chromophores show specific and useful photoresponses which cannot be achieved in randomly dispersed systems. Ideal examples of such highly functional molecular assemblies can be found in nature as photosynthesis and vision. Recently the very precise and elegant molecular arrangements of the reaction center of photosynthetic bacteria was revealed by the X-ray crystallography [1]. The first step, the photoinduced electron transfer from photoreaction center chlorophyll dimer (a special pair) to pheophytin (a chlorophyll monomer without... 

Surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectra were observed from dye molecules spaced as distant as six spacer increments (ca. 16 nm = 16 A) from the silver surface. These studies suggested that an electromagnetic mechanism is operative in this assembly in contradistinction to a chemical mechanism that would require direct contact between the Raman-active species and the metal surface. These studies are of relevance in the study of chromophoric species in biological membranes (e.g., enzymes, redox proteins, and chlorophylls). 

Porphyrins are chromophores, occurring in diverse molecules, such as hemoglobin and chlorophyll. They have a propensity to accumulate in tumors (81). Boronated porphyrins or their derivatives have great potential as boron carriers in boron neutron capture therapy (82). 

The magnesium porphyrin radical, Mg(tetraphenylporphyrin)C104 (136), has been used as a model for the structural and stereochemical consequences of loss of an electron in photosynthetic chromophores.521 The primary photosynthetic reaction in plants and bacteria consists of a transfer of an electron, in the picosecond time domain, from the chlorophyll phototrap to nearby acceptors yielding chlorophyll -cation radicals. The structure of (136) shows a five-coordinated Mg2+ cation which is not quite symmetrically sited in the porphyrin ring but has metal-ligand distances similar to those found in the previous structures. The perchlorate anion is tightly bound (Mg—O = 2.01 A) in a monodentate mode. It was concluded that the porphyrin can act as an electron sink and that no major effects are found in the bond lengths, or on the stereochemistry, of the macrocycle. 

Chlorins (2) are undoubtedly the most important dihydroporphyrins, since the chlorin chromophore is found in chlorophylls and some bacteriochlorophylls and, as the magnesium complex, is the catalyst in photosynthesis. The method of choice for formation of trans-chlorins involves reduction of iron porphyrins with sodium in boiling isopentyl alcohol (57JCS3461), but methods involving photochemical reduction of tin(IV) porphyrins, isomerization of phlorins, reduction of metalloporphyrins with sodium anthracenide followed by protonolysis, heating with sodium ethoxide, and photoreductions of zinc(II) porphyrins in the presence of ascorbic acid have also been employed. The best method for formation of c/s-chlorins (note that all natural chlorophylls possess the trans arrangement) appears to... 

---