Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 8: Charge Transfer

BP 8.2: Talk

Monday, March 26, 2007, 18:15–18:30, H44

Chemically driven electron tunnelling pumps — •Igor Goychuk — Universität Augsburg, Germany

The simplest mechanism for molecular electron pumps is discussed [1] which is based on nonadiabatic electron tunnelling and nonequilibrium conformational fluctuations [2,3]. Such fluctuations can be induced, e.g. by random binding of negatively charged ATP molecules to the electron-transferring molecular complex, their subsequent hydrolysis and the products dissociation. The pumping rate can be controlled by the ATP concentration in solution. Depending on the model parameters there may exist a critical ATP concentration for the pump to function. For realistically chosen parameters, the mechanism is shown to be robust and highly efficient. Such a mechanism is tentatively realised in nitrogenase protein complexes [4].
[1] I. Goychuk, Molecular Simulation 9, 717 (2006) (Special Issue on Electron Transfer).
[2] I. A. Goychuk, E. G. Petrov, V. May, Phys. Rev. E 56, 1421 (1997).
[3] I. Goychuk, P. Hänggi, Adv. Phys. 54, 525 (2005).
[4] I. V. Kurnikov, A. K. Charnley, D. N. Beratan, J. Phys. Chem. B, 105, 5359 (2001).