The fundamental processes of electron, excitation energy and proton transfer lie at the heart of the photosynthetic conversion of light into chemical potential energy that is used by organisms or stored in carbohydrate or other energy rich fuels. Excitation energy is transferred between antenna chromophores and to reaction centers by singlet-singlet energy transfer processes. Energy transfer is also central to various photoprotective processes that involve the antennas. Photoinduced electron transfer in reaction centers converts excitation to electrochemical potential, and subsequent dark electron transfers stabilize the charge separation in time and are involved in the enzymatic processes that produce the final products of photosynthesis. Some of these events, including water oxidation, also include proton coupled electron transfer events. It is possible to mimic aspects of all of these natural processes in artificial photosynthetic constructs. Synthetic antennas, reaction centers, photoprotective systems and catalysts have been prepared, and can be combined to make complete systems such as tandem photoelectrosynthetic cells for production of fuels using sunlight. Although these artificial systems lack the subtleties and efficiencies of their natural analogs, they can both help inform studies of natural photosynthesis and show the way toward useful solar energy conversion systems.

Mimicking photosynthetic electron, energy, and proton transfer

250th National Meeting (2015)

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