Examination of iron-sulfur clusters in proteins
Authors
Gruszecki, Elijah, Michael
Issue Date
2024-05
Type
Electronic thesis
Thesis
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Chemistry
Alternative Title
Abstract
Solar energy utilization is one of the most viable avenues of alternative energy productiondue to efficiency and abundance of the resources. While we can generate electrical energy
using solar photovoltaics, the production of chemicals and fuels using solar energy, water, and
carbon feed stocks is a highly attractive solution. The conversion of solar energy to chemical
energy in a highly efficient manner is performed by photosynthesis. Thus, nature provides a
blueprint for the design of a new generation of devices for the production of solar chemicals
and fuels. The goal of this thesis research was to better understand the tuning of charge
transfer cofactors in natural photosynthesis. There are two types of photosynthetic reaction
centers in nature, Type I (with iron-sulfur clusters serving as the terminal electron acceptors)
and Type II (with quinone molecules acting as the terminal electron acceptors). The Type
I photosynthetic reaction center, Photosystem I (PSI), in higher plants and cyanobacteria,
contains three four iron-four sulfur [4Fe-4S] clusters as charge carriers which play a crucial
role in the efficient electron transfer. In this thesis, I am examining the electronic structure
of iron-sulfur clusters in model proteins and a [4Fe-4S] cluster of PSI using density functional
theory (DFT) methods.
Description
May2024
School of Science
School of Science
Full Citation
Publisher
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY