Determination of double decker sandwich structured La-substituted chlorophyll a by EXAFS

As a representative natural porphyrin derivative, it is interesting to know the chemical form of lanthanide in chlorophyll a. We select the natural fern dicranopteris dichotoma, the most lanthanide-concentrated plant known, to isolate the chlorophyll a for our study. It is found by EXAFS that lanthanum substitutes in the magnesium position in chlorophyll and coordinates with the porphyrin ring. The lanthanum is seen to have a similar coordination structure to a sandwich-type lanthanide complex, with the La surrounded by eight nitrogen atoms from two porphyrin rings with average La-N bond length of 2.65 A.