What's so special about photosynthesis? It's the common process that every plant goes through, and it's crucial for life on Earth. Now, though, scientists have managed an extraordinary feat. They've taken the first snapshots of photosynthesis in action as it splits water into protons, electrons and oxygen.
"A crucial problem facing our Center for Bio-Inspired Fuel Production (Bisfuel) at ASU and similar research groups around the world is discovering an efficient, inexpensive catalyst for oxidizing water to oxygen gas, hydrogen ions and electrons," said Devens Gust, the center's director. "Photosynthetic organisms already know how to do this, and we need to know the details of how photosynthesis carries out the process using abundant manganese and calcium."So why bother unraveling the secrets of water splitting? Understanding the mechanism is essential for the development of artificial systems that mimic and surpass the efficiency of natural systems. In the case of plants, it may be possible to create an "artificial leaf" that could actually generate power.
In order to get a closer look at photosynthesis, the researchers used the world's most powerful X-ray laser, named LCLS. Extremely fast femtosecond laser pulses recorded snapshots of the PSII crystals before they exploded in the X-ray beam. This allowed that scientists to gather snapshots of the water-splitting process, damage-free.
"This is a major step toward the goal of making a movie of the molecular machine responsible for photosynthesis, the process by which plants make the oxygen we breathe, from sunlight and water," said John Spence, a team member involved in the new study.
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