Protein structural deformation induced lifetime shortening of photosynthetic bacteria light-harvesting complex LH2 excited state

Photosynthetic bacterial light-harvesting antenna complex LH2 was immobilized on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles in the colloidal solution. The LH2/TiO2 assembly was investigated by the time-resolved spectroscopic methods. The excited-state lifetimes for carotenoid-containing and carotenoidless LH2 have been measured, showing a decrease in the excited-state lifetime of B850 when LH2 was immobilized on TiO2. The possibility that the decrease of the LH2 excited-state lifetime being caused by an interfacial electron transfer reaction between B850 and the TiO2 nanoparticle was precluded experimentally. We proposed that the observed change in the photophysical properties of LH2 when assembled onto TiO2 nanoparticles is arising from the interfacial-interaction-induced structural deformation of the LH2 complex deviating from an ellipse of less eccentric to a more eccentric ellipse, and the observed phenomenon can be accounted by an elliptical exciton model. Experiment by using photoinactive SiO2 nanoparticle in place of TiO2 and core complex LH1 instead of LH provide further evidence to the proposed mechanism.