X-ray absorption spectroscopy: probing the chemical and electronic structure of metalloproteins.

Abstract

Recently high fluxes of X-rays have become available in the form of synchrotron radiation from electron storage rings such as at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project (SSRP). At SSRP one has 104 to 105 times more intensity of X-rays with a continuous spectrum than that available from standard X-ray tubes. This increase in intensity has allowed X-ray absorption to be observed successfully in dilute materials such as metalloproteins and metal complexes in solution. While X-ray absorption measurements have been made sporadically since 1931 (1), the measurements, their interpretation and their applications to dilute systems have only recently been extensively developed due to the work of Sayers, Stern, and Lytle (2) and the use of synchrotron sources (3).