photosystem II tagged posts

Progress has been made on the path to sunlight-driven production of hydrogen. Chemists present a new enzyme-like molecular catalyst for water oxidation. Humankind is facing a central challenge: it must manage the transition to a sustainable and carbon dioxide-neutral energy economy.

Hydrogen is considered a promising alternative to fossil fuels. It can be produced from water using electricity. If the electricity comes from renewable sources, it is called green hydrogen. But it would be even more sustainable if hydrogen could be produced directly with the energy of sunlight.

In nature, light-driven water splitting takes place during photosynthesis in plants...

A femtosecond X-ray pulse from an X-ray free electron laser intersecting a droplet that contains photosystem II crystals, the protein extracted and crystallized from cyanobacteria. Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

The living machinery of photosynthesis is still not fully understood. One of its molecular mysteries involves how a protein complex, photosystem II, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This process generates the oxygen in the air that we all breathe. New X-ray methods at the DOE SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have captured the highest resolution room-temperature images of this protein complex, which allows scientists to closely watch how water is split during photosynthesis at ambient temperature...