Energy transfer excitation transport

Once the special pair has absorbed a photon of solar energy, the excited electron is rapidly removed from the vicinity of the reaction centre to prevent any back reactions. The path it takes is as follows within 3 ps (3 X 10 12 s) it has passed to the bacteriopheophytin (a chlorophyll molecule that has two protons instead of Mg2+ at its centre), without apparently becoming closely associated with the nearby accessory bacteriochlorophyll molecule. Some 200 ps later it is transferred to the quinone. Within the next 100 ps the special pair has been reduced (by electrons coming from an electron transport chain that terminates with the cytochrome situated just above it), eliminating the positive charge, while the excited electron migrates to a second quinone molecule. 

In the overall scheme of the photosynthesis of green plants the electron transport cycle starts with the excitation of chlorophyll a in photosystem 2. The excited electron then follows a downward electron acceptor chain which eventually reaches the chlorophyll a of photosystem 1 (P700) in which it can fill the positive hole left by electronic excitation. The energy released in the electron transport chain which links photosystems 2 and 1 is used for other biochemical processes which are thereby related to photosynthesis. One of these is the process of photophosphorylation which is the production of molecules with phosphate chains used as energy transfer agents in many biochemical reactions. 

Band Structure Calculations and Experimental Results The spectroscopic properties discussed above are related primarily to intrachain electronic structure. One exception is the stability of gap states (e.g., polarons) versus the three-dimensional interaction effects mentioned in Chapter 11, Section IV.D. Energy and charge transport are, of course, dependent on interchain transfers. So while there are only a few three-dimensional band structure calculations (e.g., for PA [184] and PPV [185]), there are many theoretical calculations concerning infinite perfectly periodic one-dimensinal chains, the effects of local perturbations, and the elementary excitations of these chains solitons, polarons, and bipolarons. Only a few hints of that work will be given here. It has been discussed and reviewed several times (see, e.g., Refs. 186 to 188). 

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