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Artificial light-harvesting antenna based on an aggregation of bacteriochlorophyll c with selected pigments
Malina, Tomáš ; Pšenčík, Jakub (advisor) ; Litvín, Radek (referee)
Title: Artificial light-harvesting antenna based on an aggregation of bacteriochlorophyll c with selected pigments Author: Tomáš Malina Department: Department of Chemical Physics and Optics Supervisor of the master thesis: doc. RNDr. Jakub Pšenčík, Ph.D., KCHFO MFF UK Abstract: Solar energy is one of the most important energy sources for all living organisms. The light harvesting takes place in specialised photosynthetic complexes called antennas; they typically contain pigments held by a protein scaffold. Antennas of green bacteria, chlorosomes, are unique in this respect, for they do not need proteins to organise the pigments. The pigments contained in chlorosomes, bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) c, d or e, aggregate spontaneously. This self-aggregation can be used to form an artificial light-harvesting antenna the absorption spectrum of which can be extended by addition of other pigments. Antennas based on aggregation of BChl c with β-carotene and BChl a were prepared by a fast and slow method. The excitation energy transfer efficiency between these pigments was studied. The efficiency of energy transfer from BChl c to BChl a reached up to 95 %, the efficiency of energy transfer from β-carotene to BChl c was lower. An important role of β- carotene in artificial aggregates as well as in chlorosomes is its...
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