β-Carotene to bacteriochlorophyll c energy transfer in self-assembled aggregates mimicking chlorosomes

Abstract

Carotenoids are together with bacteriochlorophylls important constituents of chlorosomes, the light-harvesting antennae of green photosynthetic bacteria. Majority of bacteriochlorophyll molecules form self-assembling aggregates inside the chlorosomes. Aggregates of bacteriochlorophylls with optical properties similar to those of chlorosomes can also be prepared in non-polar organic solvents or in aqueous environments when a suitable non-polar molecule is added. In this work, the ability of β-carotene to induce aggregation of bacteriochlorophyll c in aqueous buffer was studied. Excitation relaxation and energy transfer in the carotenoid-bacteriochlorophyll assemblies were measured using femtosecond and nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. A fast, ∼100-fs energy transfer from the S 2 state of β-carotene to bacteriochlorophyll c was revealed, while no evidence for significant energy transfer from the S 1 state was found. Picosecond formation of the carotenoid triplet state (T 1) was observed, which was likely generated by singlet homo-fission from the S 1 state of β-carotene.