Department of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34469, Istanbul, Turkey.
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Letters, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34469, Istanbul, Turkey.
Photosynth Res. 2021 Jan;147(1):1-10. doi: 10.1007/s11120-020-00786-z. Epub 2020 Oct 9.
Light harvesting in photosynthesis is currently an issue on-debate and studied widely in all over the world. Studies on light harvesting mainly focus on enlightening molecular mechanism of the process and enhancing absorption capacity of light harvesting complexes (LHCs). Enhancement of absorption capacity of LHCs can be done either by natural methods or by synthetic methods. Quantum dots (QDs), fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals, are important constituents of inorganic-organic hybrid structures which are built to enhance absorption capacity of LHCs through synthetic methods. In this study, we synthesized carbon and heteroatom doped carbon QDs through a microwave assisted synthesis method. Each QD had unique photophysical and structural properties. Photosynthetic pigments (PP) (isolated from spinach leaves) were mixed with each QD separately to build a QD-PP hybrid structure. Our results revealed that significant amount of energy is transferred from carbon QDs to PPs and therefore chlorophyll fluorescence capacity of PPs enhanced significantly in 360-420 nm excitation wavelength interval. Our results suggested that non-toxic, inexpensive and easily synthesized carbon QDs can be an important constituent for hybrid structures to enhance absorption capacity of LHCs in highly energetic region of visible spectrum.
光合作用中的光捕获是目前广受关注和研究的热点问题。光捕获的研究主要集中在阐明该过程的分子机制和提高光捕获复合物（LHCs）的吸收能力上。提高 LHCs 的吸收能力可以通过自然方法或合成方法来实现。量子点（QDs）是荧光半导体纳米晶体，是无机-有机杂化结构的重要组成部分，通过合成方法构建这些结构可以提高 LHCs 的吸收能力。在这项研究中，我们通过微波辅助合成方法合成了碳和杂原子掺杂的碳量子点。每个量子点都具有独特的光物理和结构特性。将光合色素（PP）（从菠菜叶中分离得到）分别与每个量子点混合，构建了量子点-PP 杂化结构。我们的结果表明，大量能量从碳量子点转移到 PP 上，因此在 360-420nm 的激发波长范围内，PP 的叶绿素荧光强度显著增强。我们的结果表明，无毒、廉价且易于合成的碳量子点可以成为杂化结构的重要组成部分，用于提高 LHCs 在可见光高能区域的吸收能力。
