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Chlorophyll is vital for photosynthesis, which allows plants to absorb energy from light. [16] Chlorophyll molecules are arranged in and around photosystems that are embedded in the thylakoid membranes of chloroplasts. [17] In these complexes, chlorophyll serves three functions:
The antenna pigments are predominantly chlorophyll b, xanthophylls, and carotenes. Chlorophyll a is known as the core pigment. Their absorption spectra are non-overlapping and broaden the range of light that can be absorbed in photosynthesis. The carotenoids have another role as an antioxidant to prevent photo-oxidative damage of chlorophyll ...
The following is a breakdown of the energetics of the photosynthesis process from Photosynthesis by Hall and Rao: [6]. Starting with the solar spectrum falling on a leaf, 47% lost due to photons outside the 400–700 nm active range (chlorophyll uses photons between 400 and 700 nm, extracting the energy of one 700 nm photon from each one)
Chlorophyll a is very important in the energy phase of photosynthesis. Two electrons need to be passed to an electron acceptor for the process of photosynthesis to proceed. [ 5 ] Within the reaction centers of both photosystems there are a pair of chlorophyll a molecules that pass electrons on to the transport chain through redox reactions.
Photosynthesis usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, a process that produces oxygen. Photosynthetic organisms store the chemical energy so produced within intracellular organic compounds (compounds containing carbon) like sugars, glycogen , cellulose and starches .
Chlorophylls and carotenoids are important in light-harvesting complexes present in plants. Chlorophyll b is almost identical to chlorophyll a, except it has a formyl group in place of a methyl group. This small difference makes chlorophyll b absorb light with wavelengths between 400 and 500 nm more efficiently.
This is one of two core processes in photosynthesis, and it occurs with astonishing efficiency (greater than 90%) because, in addition to direct excitation by light at 680 nm, the energy of light first harvested by antenna proteins at other wavelengths in the light-harvesting system is also transferred to these special chlorophyll molecules.
The reaction begins with the excitation of a pair of chlorophyll molecules similar to those in the bacterial reaction center. Due to the presence of chlorophyll a, as opposed to bacteriochlorophyll, Photosystem II absorbs light at a shorter wavelength. The pair of chlorophyll molecules at the reaction center are often referred to as P680. [1]