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Updated: Jan 8, 2026

Evaluation of Photosynthetic Behaviors by Simultaneous Measurements of Leaf Reflectance and Chlorophyll Fluorescence Analyses
Published on: August 9, 2019
Electronic Structures of Chlorophyll a Investigated by Nitrogen K-Edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy under a
Fumitoshi Kumaki1,2, Shota Tsuru3, Shohei Yamashita1,4
1Photon Factory, Institute of Materials Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan.
Abstract:
The electronic structures of high-purity solid chlorophyll a were investigated using nitrogen K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The C═N π* peaks of the chlorins exhibited characteristic split profiles, which changed progressively with successive scans owing to radiation-induced effects. Inner-shell quantum chemical calculations for structural models of chlorophyll a with different phytol chain lengths assigned the electronic structures of the C═N π* peaks and confirmed that the intensity changes of the C═N π* peaks are caused by cleaving the phytol chain. The influence of the vibration of the phytol chain to the C═N π* peaks of the chlorins was also discussed.
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