Light harvesting in photosynthesis is currently an issue on-debate and studied widely in all over the world. Studies on light harvesting mainly focus on enlightening molecular mechanism of the process and enhancing absorption capacity of light harvesting complexes (LHCs). Enhancement of absorption capacity of LHCs can be done either by natural methods or by synthetic methods. Quantum dots (QDs), fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals, are important constituents of inorganic–organic hybrid structures which are built to enhance absorption capacity of LHCs through synthetic methods. In this study, we synthesized carbon and heteroatom doped carbon QDs through a microwave assisted synthesis method. Each QD had unique photophysical and structural properties. Photosynthetic pigments (PP) (isolated from spinach leaves) were mixed with each QD separately to build a QD–PP hybrid structure. Our results revealed that significant amount of energy is transferred from carbon QDs to PPs and therefore chlorophyll fluorescence capacity of PPs enhanced significantly in 360–420 nm excitation wavelength interval. Our results suggested that non-toxic, inexpensive and easily synthesized carbon QDs can be an important constituent for hybrid structures to enhance absorption capacity of LHCs in highly energetic region of visible spectrum.

光合作用中的光收集目前是一个有争议的问题，并在世界各地进行了广泛的研究。光捕获的研究主要集中在阐明该过程的分子机制和增强光捕获复合物（LHC）的吸收能力。LHC 吸收能力的增强可以通过自然方法或合成方法来完成。量子点（QDs）是一种荧光半导体纳米晶体，是无机-有机杂化结构的重要组成部分，通过合成方法增强 LHC 的吸收能力。在这项研究中，我们通过微波辅助合成方法合成了碳和杂原子掺杂的碳量子点。每个量子点都具有独特的光物理和结构特性。光合色素（PP）（从菠菜叶中分离）分别与每个 QD 混合以构建 QD-PP 混合结构。我们的结果表明，大量的能量从碳量子点转移到 PPs，因此 PPs 的叶绿素荧光能力在 360-420 nm 激发波长间隔内显着增强。我们的结果表明，无毒、廉价且易于合成的碳量子点可以成为混合结构的重要组成部分，以增强 LHC 在可见光谱高能区的吸收能力。