EALING: Green could be the Plant Kingdom’s color of decision, but it does not have to be that way. In fact, it takes only a small chemical tuning to turn chlorophyll—the light-absorbing pigment that colors plants green—blue, red, orange, or any other hue below the sun.
As reported in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B, scientists have lately figured out how to hack chlorophyll to absorb what ever colors of sunlight we like. Armed with new versions of the pigment, we may be able to engineer plants, or artificial solar cells, that can soak up far additional of the sun’s power than just before.
When chlorophyll—consisting of layers of cross hatched carbon and nitrogen rings—absorbs a photon of light, its electrons are thrust into a larger power state. The difference in between the energy contained in these electrons prior to and after absorbing sunlight determines what colors are absorbed and reflected. That distinction, in turn, depends on chlorophyll’s molecular structure. Following synthesizing many various versions of the chlorophyll in the lab, three chemists worked out how to precisely alter the fraction of sunlight the pigment absorbs and reflects, by modifying the chemical structure of its rings.
Naturally occurring molecules in the chlorophyll family members, discovered in plants and bacteria, take on a number of diverse colors. Now chemists are able to fill in the gaps.
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