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Free oxygen is produced in the biosphere through photolysis (light-driven oxidation and splitting) of water during photosynthesis in cyanobacteria, green algae, and plants. During oxidative phosphorylation in cellular respiration, oxygen is reduced to water, thus closing the biological water-oxygen redox cycle.
Photosynthetic water splitting (or oxygen evolution) is one of the most important reactions on the planet, since it is the source of nearly all the atmosphere's oxygen. Moreover, artificial photosynthetic water-splitting may contribute to the effective use of sunlight as an alternative energy-source.
Photosynthesis usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, a process that produces oxygen. Photosynthetic organisms store the chemical energy so produced within intracellular organic compounds (compounds containing carbon) like sugars, glycogen , cellulose and starches .
The high-energy oxidized tyrosine gives off its energy and returns to the ground state by taking up a proton and removing an electron from the oxygen-evolving complex and ultimately from water. [4] Kok's S-state diagram shows the reactions of water splitting in the oxygen-evolving complex.
The antenna complex contains hundreds of chlorophyll molecules which funnel the excitation energy to the center of the photosystem. At the reaction center, the energy will be trapped and transferred to produce a high energy molecule. [2] The main function of PSII is to efficiently split water into oxygen molecules and protons.
In nature, singlet oxygen is commonly formed from water during photosynthesis, using the energy of sunlight. [38] It is also produced in the troposphere by the photolysis of ozone by light of short wavelength [ 39 ] and by the immune system as a source of active oxygen. [ 40 ]
The energy of P680 + is used in two steps to split a water molecule into 2H + + 1/2 O 2 + 2e-(photolysis or light-splitting). An electron from the water molecule reduces P680 + back to P680, while the H + and oxygen are released.
The water-splitting reaction occurs on the lumenal side of the thylakoid membrane and is driven by the light energy captured by the photosystems. This oxidation of water conveniently produces the waste product O 2 that is vital for cellular respiration. The molecular oxygen formed by the reaction is released into the atmosphere.