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Hauptverfasser: Wang, Shuangqing, Sutherland, George A., Pidgeon, James P., Swainsbury, David J. K., Martin, Elizabeth C., Vasilev, Cvetelin, Hitchcock, Andrew, Gillard, Daniel J., Venkatraman, Ravi Kumar, Chekulaev, Dimitri, Tartakovskii, Alexander I., Hunter, C. Neil, Clark, Jenny
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.18801
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author Wang, Shuangqing
Sutherland, George A.
Pidgeon, James P.
Swainsbury, David J. K.
Martin, Elizabeth C.
Vasilev, Cvetelin
Hitchcock, Andrew
Gillard, Daniel J.
Venkatraman, Ravi Kumar
Chekulaev, Dimitri
Tartakovskii, Alexander I.
Hunter, C. Neil
Clark, Jenny
author_facet Wang, Shuangqing
Sutherland, George A.
Pidgeon, James P.
Swainsbury, David J. K.
Martin, Elizabeth C.
Vasilev, Cvetelin
Hitchcock, Andrew
Gillard, Daniel J.
Venkatraman, Ravi Kumar
Chekulaev, Dimitri
Tartakovskii, Alexander I.
Hunter, C. Neil
Clark, Jenny
contents Singlet fission (SF), the spin-allowed conversion of one singlet exciton into two triplet excitons, offers a promising strategy for enhancing the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. However, realising this potential necessitates materials capable of ultrafast (sub-picosecond) SF and the generation of long-lived (> microsecond) triplet excitons, a synthetic challenge. Some photosynthetic organisms have evolved sophisticated molecular architectures that demonstrate these criteria, but despite 40 years of study, the underlying SF mechanisms and its functional significance in these organisms remain unclear. Here, we use a suite of ultrafast and magneto-optical spectroscopic techniques to understand the mechanism of SF within light-harvesting 1 (LH1) complexes from wild-type and genetically modified photosynthetic bacteria. Our findings reveal a SF process, termed "heterofission", wherein singlet excitons are transformed into triplet excitons localised on adjacent carotenoid (Crt) and bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecules. We also uncover an unexpected functional role for SF in augmenting Crt-to-BChl photosynthetic energy transfer efficiency. By transiently storing electronic excitation within the SF-generated triplet pair, the system circumvents rapid thermalisation of Crt excitations, thereby enhancing energy transfer efficiency to the BChl Qy state, and enabling the organism to usefully harvest more sunlight.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_18801
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Singlet fission contributes to solar energy harvesting in photosynthesis
Wang, Shuangqing
Sutherland, George A.
Pidgeon, James P.
Swainsbury, David J. K.
Martin, Elizabeth C.
Vasilev, Cvetelin
Hitchcock, Andrew
Gillard, Daniel J.
Venkatraman, Ravi Kumar
Chekulaev, Dimitri
Tartakovskii, Alexander I.
Hunter, C. Neil
Clark, Jenny
Biological Physics
Chemical Physics
Singlet fission (SF), the spin-allowed conversion of one singlet exciton into two triplet excitons, offers a promising strategy for enhancing the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. However, realising this potential necessitates materials capable of ultrafast (sub-picosecond) SF and the generation of long-lived (> microsecond) triplet excitons, a synthetic challenge. Some photosynthetic organisms have evolved sophisticated molecular architectures that demonstrate these criteria, but despite 40 years of study, the underlying SF mechanisms and its functional significance in these organisms remain unclear. Here, we use a suite of ultrafast and magneto-optical spectroscopic techniques to understand the mechanism of SF within light-harvesting 1 (LH1) complexes from wild-type and genetically modified photosynthetic bacteria. Our findings reveal a SF process, termed "heterofission", wherein singlet excitons are transformed into triplet excitons localised on adjacent carotenoid (Crt) and bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecules. We also uncover an unexpected functional role for SF in augmenting Crt-to-BChl photosynthetic energy transfer efficiency. By transiently storing electronic excitation within the SF-generated triplet pair, the system circumvents rapid thermalisation of Crt excitations, thereby enhancing energy transfer efficiency to the BChl Qy state, and enabling the organism to usefully harvest more sunlight.
title Singlet fission contributes to solar energy harvesting in photosynthesis
topic Biological Physics
Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.18801