Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, NJ 08544, USA.
Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, NJ 08544, USA.
Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2018 Dec;47:39-46. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2018.07.023. Epub 2018 Aug 2.
Photosynthetic organisms are a remarkable example of nanoscale engineering and have mastered the process of solar energy harvesting over billions of years of evolution. Therefore, researchers seek insights from the light collection mechanisms of photosynthetic machinery. The initial energy transfer stage of photosynthesis, which begins with light absorption and leads to charge separation, is remarkably robust in conditions of strong energetic disorder, extreme physiological temperatures, and low light flux - very different from conventional solar conversion materials [1-3]. However, determining the key principles which are responsible for efficient conversion is a challenging task due to the complexity of the photosynthetic systems. The field encountered a fascinating lead in 2007 when oscillatory features were discovered in two-dimensional electronic spectroscopic data - the optical analogue of 2D NMR - and were assigned to quantum coherence between donor and acceptor electronic states [4]. In this review, we describe the evolution in our understanding of quantum effects in photosynthetic energy transfer. A vibronic model is described to demonstrate the current opinion on how quantum effects can optimize energy transfer.
光合生物是纳米工程的杰出范例，它们在数十亿年的进化过程中掌握了太阳能收集的过程。因此，研究人员从光合作用机械的光收集机制中寻求启示。光合作用的初始能量转移阶段，从光吸收开始，导致电荷分离，在强能量无序、极端生理温度和低光通量的条件下非常稳健-与传统的太阳能转换材料非常不同[1-3]。然而，由于光合作用系统的复杂性，确定负责高效转换的关键原则是一项具有挑战性的任务。该领域在 2007 年遇到了一个迷人的线索，当时在二维电子光谱数据中发现了振荡特征-二维 NMR 的光学类似物-并被分配给给体和受体电子态之间的量子相干[4]。在这篇综述中，我们描述了我们对光合作用能量转移中量子效应的理解的演变。描述了一个振子模型，以证明当前关于量子效应如何优化能量转移的观点。
