Inorganic photoreduction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate. I. Photoreduction by certain oxide semiconductors in the near ultraviolet.

The action of chloroplasts in the light reactions of photosynthesis is the reduction of NADP to NADPH and phosphorylation of ADP to ATP by light energy. According to the electron theory of catalysis of photosynthesis, these functions of chloroplasts can be mimicked by any inorganic semiconductors. This paper reports that with ZnO instead of chloroplasts NADP can be photoreduced to NADPH in the near ultraviolet.