Original title: Carotenoid Excited State Processes by Femtosecond Time-Resolved Pump-Probe and Multi-Pulse Spectroscopies
Authors: WEST, Robert G.
Document type: Doctoral theses
Year: 2018
Language: eng
Abstract: This Ph.D. thesis is an exploration of carotenoids by ultrafast, time-resolved absorption spectroscopy to investigate their complicated relaxation processes, means of energy transfer, and dependence on structure. The introduction begins with an overview of carotenoids, intended for the reader to appreciate their importance and their complexity as revealed by decades of research in carotenoid photophysics. To understand the primary concerns of this research field, the reader is guided through basic theory of energetic processes, the experimental method, and methods of analysis. The main body of the text is the Research Chapter, containing four sections, each describing research using varied ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopies on carotenoids in solution and when bound to a host protein. Section 2.1 concerns an equilibration phenomenon in the lowest excited state of the carotenoid fucoxanthin in various solutions and temperatures by a multi-pulse transient absorption method. The same method is applied to fucoxanthin in a host antennae protein of the pennate diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum to investigate the function of the equilibration in energy transfer to Chlorophyll a in Section 2.2. The next two sections regard the effect of carotenoid structure on its relaxation dynamics. Section 2.3 investigates the effect of the non-conjugated acyloxy group of two fucoxanthin derivatives in various solvents. Here, one of the energetic states involved in the equilibrium mentioned above is seen drastically affected. Lastly, Section 2.4 investigates alloxanthin, a carotenoid with an unusual pair of carbon-carbon triple bonds. Their effect on the conjugation is evaluated based upon the molecules' decay dynamics. A general summary and conclusion is provided at the end.
Keywords: alloxanthin; antenna; carotenoid photophysics; FCP; femtosecond spectroscopy; fucoxanthin; intramolecular charge transfer; light harvesting; multi-pulse spectroscopy; pump-dump-probe; transient absorption spectroscopy
Citation: WEST, Robert G.. Carotenoid Excited State Processes by Femtosecond Time-Resolved Pump-Probe and Multi-Pulse Spectroscopies. N. Hrady, 2018. disertační práce (Ph.D.). JIHOČESKÁ UNIVERZITA V ČESKÝCH BUDĚJOVICÍCH. Přírodovědecká fakulta

Institution: University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (web)
Document availability information: Fulltext is available in the Digital Repository of University of South Bohemia.
Original record: http://www.jcu.cz/vskp/40632

Permalink: http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-375705


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Universities and colleges > Public universities > University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
Academic theses (ETDs) > Doctoral theses