Modelling light-driven proton pumps in artificial photosynthetic reaction centers

Abstract

We study a model of a light-induced proton pump in artificial reaction centers. The model contains a molecular triad with four electron states (i.e., one donor state, two photosensitive group states, and one acceptor state) as well as a molecular shuttle having one electron and one proton-binding sites. The shuttle diffuses between the sides of the membrane and translocates protons energetically uphill: from the negative side to the positive side of the membrane, harnessing for this purpose the energy of the electron-charge-separation produced by light. Using methods of quantum transport theory we calculate the range of light intensity and transmembrane potentials that maximize both the light-induced proton current and the energy transduction efficiency. We also study the effect of temperature on proton pumping. The light-induced proton pump in our model gives a quantum yield of proton translocation of about 55 %. Thus, our results explain previous experiments on these artificial photosynthetic reaction centers.

14 pages, two columns format with inserted figures in the text

References in corpus (4)

• Time-Dependent Transport through a Mesoscopic Structure
• Kinetics of proton pumping in cytochrome c oxidase
• Forster mechanism of electron-driven proton pump
• Proton transport and torque generation in rotary biomotors

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