Photosynthesis: Molecular Approaches to Solar Energy Conversion [Hardcover]

In the modern world, to meet increasing energy demands we need to develop new technologies allowing us to use eco-friendly carbon-neutral energy sources. Solar energy as the most promising renewable source could be the way to solve that problem, but it is variable depending on day time and season. From this side, the understanding of photosynthesis process could be of significant help for us to develop effective strategies of solar energy capturing, conversion, and storage. Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis, annually producing around 100 billion tons of dry biomass. Presently, the detailed studies of photosynthetic system structure make functional investigations of the photosynthetic process available, allowing scientists to construct artificial systems for solar energy transduction. This book summarizes exciting achievements in understanding of photosynthetic structures and mechanisms of this process made by world leaders in photosynthesis field, and contains information about modern ideas in development of revolutionary new technologies of energy conversion. Organized according to the natural sequence of events occurring during photosynthesis, the book includes information of both photosynthetic structures and mechanisms and its applications in bioenergetics issues.Part 1. Natural and Artificial Water Oxidation.- 1. Structure, Electron Transfer Chain of Photosystem II and the Mechanism of Water-splitting (Jian-Ren Shen, Yoshiki Nakajima, Fusamichi Akita, Michihiro Suga).- 2. Mechanism of Water Oxidation in Photosynthesis Elucidated by Interplay between Experiment and Theory (Kizashi Yamaguchi, Shusuke Yamanaka, Hiroshi Isobe, Mitsuo Shoji, Takashi Kawakami, Koichi Miyagawa).- 3. On the Nature of the Functional S-states in the Oxygen Evolving Centre of Photosystem II: What Computational Chemistry Reveals about the Water Splitting Mechanism (Rob Stranger, Simon Petrie, Richard Terrett and Ron J. Pace).- 4. Toward Molecular Mechanisms of Solar l³%