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Updated: May 19, 2026

Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Two interconvertible structures that explain the spectroscopic properties of the oxygen-evolving complex of
Dimitrios A Pantazis1, William Ames, Nicholas Cox
1Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. dimitrios.pantazis@cec.mpg.de
Abstract:
Using models derived from the X-ray structure of photosystem II, it is shown that the oxygen evolving complex in the S(2) state exists in two energetically similar and interconvertible forms. A longstanding question regarding the spectroscopy of the catalyst is thus answered: one form corresponds to the multiline g=2.0 EPR signal (see picture, right; O red, Mn purple, Ca yellow), and the other to the g≥4.1 signals (left).
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