Excited state dynamics of the carotenoid peridinin

T. Polívka*, D. Zigmantas, R. G. Hiller, V. Sundström

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    1 Citation (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Carotenoids play a number of roles in living organisms. In addition to their well-know light-harvesting function in photosynthesis, they have also photoprotective and antioxidative functions in various physiological systems. Studies of dynamics of carotenoid excited states have established the following scheme: after excitation of a carotenoid to its S2 state (1Bu+), a fast relaxation to the Si state (2Ag-) occurs on a time scale of 50-300 fs. The S1 state relaxes to its ground state S0 on the time scale of 1-300 ps. Peridinin is a highly substituted carotenoid occurring in some dinoflagellates where it is the principle carotenoid of the water soluble light-harvesting peridinin-chlorophyll-protein (PCP), whose structure has been resolved to 2.0 A. The PCP complex exhibits an exceptional stoichiometry of 8 peridinin and 2 chlorophyll a (Chl-a) molecules. This, together with the unusual carotenoid structure, has initiated several studies focusing on spectroscopic properties of peridinin that revealed unique photo-physical properties of peridinin, are discussed in this chapter.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationFemtochemistry and femtobiology
    Subtitle of host publicationUltrafast events in molecular science
    EditorsMonique M. Martin, James T. Hynes
    Place of PublicationAmsterdam
    PublisherElsevier
    Pages445-452
    Number of pages8
    ISBN (Electronic)9780080506265
    ISBN (Print)9780444516565
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 16 Apr 2004
    EventUltrafast Events in Molecular Science: 6th International Conference on Femtochemistry - Maison de la Chimie, Paris, France
    Duration: 6 Jul 200310 Jul 2003

    Conference

    ConferenceUltrafast Events in Molecular Science
    Country/TerritoryFrance
    CityParis
    Period6/07/0310/07/03

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