This is an abstract for a presentation given at the Sixth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology . There will be a link from here to the full article when it is available on the web.
Photosynthesis is the conversion of electromagnetic energy into stored chemical energy.
In higher plants there are two such reaction centers, Photosystems I and II, that have nanometer dimensions, picosecond response times and span a potential difference of one volt or more in their energized charge-separated state. The polarity of the voltage and vectorial nature of the charge separation is indicated in Fig. 1 . The scientific focus and work plan of this proposal is on the interfacial physics and chemistry of isolated photosynthetic reaction centers and the construction of molecular logic devices using ORNL's unique experience in PS I self assembly, thin film and surface physics and instrumentation design and development. 2 is a schematic illustration of the extraction and isolation of Photosystem I reaction centers. Fig. 1 Figure 1 .