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Science 7 July 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5783, p. 13
DOI: 10.1126/science.313.5783.13e
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Figure 1 Biological photosystems use elaborate protein-chromophore structures to separate photoinduced charges so that, rather than recombine, they perform useful chemical reactions. Bhosale et al. (p. 84; see the Perspective by Kinbara and Aida) synthesized a photosystem that partitions electron and hole acceptors on the inside and outside of vesicles that react with the photoinduced charges before they recombine. Molecules containing face-to-face stacks of fluorophores self-assembled as tetramers in lipid vesicles. In the presence of visible light, these assemblies create long-lived electron-hole pairs that reduced quinones inside the vesicles and oxidized EDTA in the surrounding solution. The resulting pH gradient between the interior and exterior of the vesicle could be released by the addition of an intercalator that caused the photosystem to reassemble as a channel structure.

CREDIT: BHOSALE ET AL.




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