ETD

Archivio digitale delle tesi discusse presso l'Università di Pisa

Tesi etd-11082016-160857


Tipo di tesi
Tesi di dottorato di ricerca
Autore
GUARNETTI PRANDI, INGRID
URN
etd-11082016-160857
Titolo
Development of classical models for the description of QM properties in photoinduced processes
Settore scientifico disciplinare
CHIM/02
Corso di studi
SCIENZE CHIMICHE E DEI MATERIALI
Relatori
tutor Prof.ssa Mennucci, Benedetta
Parole chiave
  • molecular dynamics
  • force-field
  • carotenoids
Data inizio appello
05/12/2016
Consultabilità
Completa
Riassunto
Carotenoids are naturally occurring pigments present in photosynthetic organisms, such as plants, bacteria and algae. Specifically, neoxanthin (NEX), violaxanthin (VIO), lutein (LUT), zeaxanthin (ZEA), rhodopsin glucoside (RGT); spirilloxanthin (SPI) and peridinin (PID) are found in Light-Harvesting (LH) complexes where they play different roles in photosynthesis acting as: (1) antennae enhancing the light absorption; (2) photoprotectors, quenching harmful oxidant molecules created in high-light conditions and (3) structure stabilizers. A common methodology to investigate the mechanisms of action of carotenoids in these complexes is the combination of QM methods and classical molecular dynamics based on molecular mechanics force-fields, to simulate the system at in vivo conditions. Unfortunately, for an accurate prediction of the structure and their temperature-dependent fluctuations, it is not sufficient to describe carotenoids with a general force-field but it is necessary to develop specialised force-field parameters. This work presents new force-fields for the different carotenoids, all based on Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. In order to validate the quality of the new models, structural and electronic properties, and excitation energy profiles were computed and compared with other available force-fields. As an application, we performed and analysed MD simulations of CP29 and LHCII complexes describing the carotenoids with the new developed models.
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