Analysis of Photosynthetic Systems and Their Applications with Mathematical and Computational Models

Abstract

In biological and life science applications, photosynthesis is an important process that involves the absorption and transformation of sunlight into chemical energy. During the photosynthesis process, the light photons are captured by the green chlorophyll pigments in their photosynthetic antennae and further funneled to the reaction center. One of the most important light harvesting complexes that are highly important in the study of photosynthesis is the membrane-attached Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) complex found in the green sulfur bacteria. In this review, we discuss the mathematical formulations and computational modeling of some of the light harvesting complexes including FMO. The most recent research developments in the photosynthetic light harvesting complexes are thoroughly discussed. The theoretical background related to the spectral density, quantum coherence and density functional theory has been elaborated. Furthermore, details about the transfer and excitation of energy in different sites of the FMO complex along with other vital photosynthetic light harvesting complexes have also been provided. Finally, we conclude this review by providing the current and potential applications in environmental science, energy, health and medicine, where such mathematical and computational studies of the photosynthesis and the light harvesting complexes can be readily integrated.

Mathematical Models with Nonlocal Initial Conditions: An Exemplification from Quantum Mechanics

“…Starting from generalized versions of the master equation, one has to construct an efficient procedure for calculating memory kernels, including non-Markovian cases [218]. Nonperturbative approaches [219][220][221][222] can provide here superior efficiency and accuracy improvements, see, e.g., [223] where they were tested on the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) light-harvesting complexes important in the analysis of photosynthetic systems [224][225][226][227]. The problems of reductions of Mori-Zwanzig theory models (not limited to their quantum-classical versions) have been a topic of discussion which included also relevant computational complexity issues [228].…”

The Interplay of Conjugation and Metal Coordination in Tuning the Electron Transfer Abilities of NTA-Graphene Based Interfaces

“…Although the processes governing natural photosynthesis are known, their reproduction on a laboratory scale is very complex, since it requires building up key components of the process without the lipid membrane present in the natural process, in a non-physiological environment [ 1 ]. Despite these difficulties, biodevices based on artificial photosynthesis have been produced with encouraging results for energy conversion and water splitting processes [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. One of the main challenges of these interfaces is the formation of sufficiently strong connections between the electrode and the light harvesting protein which will ensure efficient charge transfer between the two parts of the device, without losing the protein activity.…”