Numerical experiments were carried out to determine the timewise self-consistency of different physical processes involved in the energy transfer in green plant photosynthecc units. A 6 X 6 X 6 array of chlorophyll-a with cubic lattice constants a = b = c = 20 A was chosen as a model of the thylakoi
Transport of excitation energy in a three-dimensional doped molecular aggregate. VII. Physical chemistry of exciton processes in thylakoid membrane
โ Scribed by S. N. Datta; Deepak Shah
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 279 KB
- Volume
- 74
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0020-7608
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โฆ Synopsis
We numerically investigated the process of exciton transfer in thylakoid membranes. Recent knowledge of the structure and shape of these membranes was used to formulate four prototypes for which the numerical simulations were carried out. The intensity of the solar spectrum was chosen so as to account for the actual process of photosynthesis occurring in nature at sea level at an average latitude. As the most important point of departure from previous studies on the simulation of exciton dynamics in a molecular aggregate, we considered the exciton generation to be a continuous process. Thus, excitations of the chlorophylls and the special pairs, exciton transfer from host pigments to other hosts, trapping of excitons by reaction centers, host and trap fluorescence, and exciton utilization in the reaction centers were all treated as simultaneous events. The rate of generation of excitons was determined for each chlorophyll molecule and each special pair individually by following standard expressions from the semiclassical treatment of the interaction of radiation with matter. The excitonic interaction energy was taken as the energy of interaction of two transition dipoles. The exciton hopping rate was determined from the expressions derived in our previous theoretical work. The simulation was based on a numerical solution of the generalized master equation describing the exciton dynamics that include exciton creation, exciton decay by fluorescence, exciton transfer from one site to another, exciton trapping by special pairs, and exciton utilization by chemical reaction at the traps. The following quantities were empirically selected, determined, or estimated: the thylakoid size, shape, and constitution; chlorophyll and dimer excitation energies and dipole strengths; the solar energy spectrum; exciton relaxation time; fluorescence rate constants; and the rate constant of the chemical reaction of the excited special pairs. We found that each closed
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