Energy and Electron Transfer in Photosynthesis

a keyword search of the PDB databank with the term photosynthesis will generate 190 deposited data. The more restrictive term photosynthetic reaction center will provide 59, and the keywords light harvesting will afford 33 hits. Very recently, Cogdell and Isaacs have reported the reaction center-LHi complex of Rhodopseudomonas palustris at 4.8 A resolution .  

By observation and better understanding of these sophisticated biological processes, the design of multiporphyrinic species capable of performing energy and electron transfer has been both stimulated and facilitated, leading to one of the major areas of research in molecular electronics in terms of activity and publications. In terms of applicability, the synthetic systems face two challenges. 

The first challenge is the performance of the synthetic systems. The second aspect is the cost/performance ratio, which limits most of the results obtained so far to academic interest. At present, no synthetic system based on multiporphyrinic assemblies will reasonably compete with mass production of electronic devices via CMOS technology. For example, the estimated cost per bit of packaged DRAM is actually around 10 //cent (in US dollars) . 

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Govindjee G (ed) (1987) Excitation energy and electron transfer in photosynthesis, Martinus NijhofT, Dordrecht... 

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