Selective stepwise Suzuki cross-coupling reaction for the modelling of photosynthetic donor-acceptor systems

Some cycloaddition reactions are activated by heat, while others are initiated by light. For example, a [2 + 2] cycloaddition between two ethylene molecules occurs only in the presence of light. It is photochemically allowed but thermally forbidden.

The light reactions of photosynthesis assume a linear flow of electrons from water to NADP+. During this process, light energy drives the splitting of water molecules to produce oxygen. However, oxidation of water molecules is a thermodynamically unfavorable reaction and requires a strong oxidizing agent. This is accomplished by the first product of light reactions: oxidized P680 (or P680+), the most powerful oxidizing agent known in biology. The oxidized P680 that acquires an electron from the...

Reaction centers are pigment-protein complexes that initiate energy conversion from photons to chemical entities. Therefore, photochemical reaction center is a more appropriate term that describes these complexes. The Nobel laureates Robert Emerson and William Arnold provided the first experimental evidence of photochemical reaction centers by demonstrating the participation of nearly 2,500 chlorophyll molecules for the release of just one molecule of oxygen. Despite thousands of photosynthetic...

Cycloadditions are one of the most valuable and effective synthesis routes to form cyclic compounds. These are concerted pericyclic reactions between two unsaturated compounds resulting in a cyclic product with two new σ bonds formed at the expense of π bonds. The [4 + 2] cycloaddition, known as the Diels–Alder reaction, is the most common. The other example is a [2 + 2] cycloaddition.

Although structurally similar to photosystem II (PSII), photosystem I (PSI) is has a different electron supplier and electron acceptor.
Both these photosystems work in concert. An excited electron from PSII is relayed to PSI via an electron transport chain in the thylakoid membrane of the chloroplast, which is comprised of the carrier molecule plastoquinone, the dual-protein cytochrome complex, and plastocyanin. As electrons move between PSII and PSI, they lose energy and must be re-energized...