The role of low-energy excited states in solar-energy capture
Funding: 2015: $135,000
2016: $129,000
2017: $130,000
Project Member(s): Reimers, J.
Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Projects)
Start year: 2015
Summary: The nature and role of the lowest-energy excited states in most natural photosynthetic reaction centres and light-harvesting complexes will be determined. The lowest-energy states of bacterial reaction centres are critical to function and are used as a paradigm in artificial organic solar-energy capture, but for most photosystems their nature remains unknown and a critical question that we shall answer is to why they do not actually prevent function. Both the outcomes obtained and techniques developed will be directly relevant to solar-energy device design. We will apply 5 existing, complimentary, and purposely built spectrometers as well as quantum electronic and nuclear simulation techniques to identify and characterise 3 key systems.
Publications:
Canfield, PJ, Blake, IM, Cai, Z-L, Luck, IJ, Krausz, E, Kobayashi, R, Reimers, JR & Crossley, MJ 2018, 'A new fundamental type of conformational isomerism', Nature Chemistry, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 615-624.
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Reimers, JR, Biczysko, M, Bruce, D, Coker, DF, Frankcombe, TJ, Hashimoto, H, Hauer, J, Jankowiak, R, Kramer, T, Linnanto, J, Mamedov, F, Müh, F, Rätsep, M, Renger, T, Styring, S, Wan, J, Wang, Z, Wang-Otomo, Z-Y, Weng, Y-X, Yang, C, Zhang, J-P, Freiberg, A & Krausz, E 2016, 'Challenges facing an understanding of the nature of low-energy excited states in photosynthesis', Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics, vol. 1857, no. 9, pp. 1627-1640.
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Reimers, JR, Cai, Z-L, Kobayashi, R, Raetsep, M, Freiberg, A & Krausz, E 2014, 'Formation of water-chlorophyll clusters in dilute samples of chlorophyll-a in ether at low temperature', PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 2323-2330.
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Keywords: quantum chemistry, electronic spectroscopy, photosynthesis
FOR Codes: Structural Biology (incl. Macromolecular Modelling), Expanding Knowledge in the Chemical Sciences, Structural Chemistry and Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry, Theoretical quantum chemistry, Structure and dynamics of materials