Transient intermediate electron acceptor

The Transient Intermediate Electron Acceptor of Photosystem II, Pheophytin (O)... 

In this account, we will focus on the transient analysis of these systems, which has strongly contributed to a deeper understanding of the diverse reaction modes (Patemo-Buchi, proton abstraction, cycloaddition). In general, aromatic ketones were selected as electron acceptors for reasons of suitable excitation and long wavelength absorption of the radical anion intermediates. Among them, fluorenone 3 is particularly well suited since the concentration, solvent, temperature, and cation radius dependence of the absorption spectra of pairs formed with metal cations are already known [29]. Hogen-Esch and Smid [30, 10] pointed out that a differentiation between CIP and SSIP is possible for fluorenone systems. On the other hand, FRI s and SSIP s cannot be differentiated simply by their UV/Vis absorption spectra, whereas for instance conductance measurements may be successful. However, the portion of free radical ions in fluorenyl salt solutions was shown to be less important [9, 31]... 

Quite different is the situation in model A where the 3.5 ps decay precedes the 0.9 ps (0.65 ps) process. Fig. 2e, 2f show the difference spectra of intermediate for model A. The salient features are (i) disappearance of the absorption of the special pair P, (ii) absorption changes characteristic for P, (iii) strong absorption decrease in the band of the monomeric bacteriochlorophylls (at 800 nm for Rb. sphaeroides, at 820 nm for Rps. viridis), (iv) pronounced absorption increase around 660 nm in the BChl and BPh anion bands, (v) Furthermore transient di-chroism experiments for Rb. sphaeroides indicate that the transition moment of the 660 nm band of is parallel to the direction expected for the BChl anion B 76/. It is remarkable that all five points support the assignment of being the radical pair P B - Thus the monomeric bacterio-chlorophyll B should be the primary electron acceptor. 

As a 3-step mechanism, the electron-transfer paradigm provides a pair of discrete intermediates [D, A] and D+, A for the prior organization and the activation, respectively, of the donor and the acceptor. The quantitative evaluation of these intermediates would allow the overall second-order reaction (k2) to be determined. Although the presence of [D, A] does not necessarily imply its transformation to D+, A-, a large number and variety of donor/ acceptor couples showing transient charge-transfer absorptions associated with [D, A] have now been identified. In each case, the product can be predicted from the expected behavior of the individual ion radicals D+ and A-. Consider for example, the labile 1 1 benzene complex with bromine that has been isolated at low temperatures and characterized crystallographically (Chart 9).256... 

Three oxidations states are potentially available in a binuclear iron center. Enzymes with octahedral fi-o o bridged iron clusters can be isolated in each of the three states the diferric and diferrous states appear to be the functional terminal oxidation states for most of the enzymes, while the mixed valence state may be an important intermediate or transition state for some reactions (Que and True, 1991). In these enzymes the cluster participates primarily as a two-electron partner in the redox of substrates, perhaps using sequential one-electron steps. Without additional coupled redox steps the enzyme is in a new oxidation state after one turnover. In contrast only the diferric and mixed valence oxidation states have been found for 2Fe 2S clusters. The diferrous state may not be obtainable because of the high negative charge on [2Fe 2S(4RS)] versus -1 or 0 net charge for the diferrous octahedral (i.e., non-Fe S) clusters. The 2Fe 2S proteins either are one-electron donor/acceptors or serve as transient electron transfer intermediates. 

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