Photosynthetic water oxidation to yield the oxygen of the atmosphere is of paramount biological and also technical relevance, in the light of decreasing fossil fuel reserves. The splitting of water into hydrogen (on carriers) and oxygen takes place in a multimeric protein called Photosystem II (PSII). The rigorous understanding of nature´s solution for this thermodynamically and mechanistically highly demanding reaction is one approach towards the construction of an artificial hydrogen technology under exploitation of almost unlimited energy sources, sunlight and an ubiquitous substrate, water. This thesis aims at two aspects: (i) Electron and proton transferring amino acids and (ii) so far undetected chemical intermediates between water and O2(i) D1-Glu189 has been claimed to be involved (a) in the proton conducting network around the Mn4Ca-cluster and (b) as a direct ligand to Mn. We exchanged the negative Glu against the positive Arg or Lys or the neutral Glu without any effect on the relaxation times (ns-ms) of the various electron transfers in PSII. Our data exclude these postulated roles of D1-Glu189 and qualify a recently published structural model.(ii) Dioxygen is produced in what seems to be a single reaction step, although it involves the transfer of four electrons from bound water to the fourfold oxidised catalytic centre. No chemical intermediate (e.g. peroxide) has been detected by high resolving optical and magnetical spectroscopy. To overcome the detection problem of short lived intermediates we pushed the process backward by elevated oxygen pressure and found the first evidence for such an intermediate. The astonishing half suppression of oxygen evolution at only 2.3 bar O2 emphasised the small driving force of this important reaction. PSII operates at the energetic limits; this is why the atmospheric oxygen level cannot be pushed much above the present level.

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L’industrialisation et l’utilisation dans la vie courante d’un nombre croissant de produits chimiques et médicamenteux sont responsables de la dissémination dans l’environnement de substances variées nommées« polluants émergents ». Les traitements des eaux usées existants ne sont pas conçus pour éliminer cette catégorie de pollution et les polluants émergents sont alors rejetés dans le milieu récepteur. Une possible solution pour limiter le rejet de ces composés par les effluents de station d’épuration serait l’utilisation de procédés de traitement additionnels tels que les procédés d’oxydation avancés. C’est dans ce contexte qu’a démarré le projet Européen Clean Water en 2009 associant 7 entités dont le GEPEA-Ecole des Mines de Nantes. Le concept du projet est de développer des procédés photocatalytiques mettant en œuvre des nanomatériaux actifs sous la lumière solaire. Ces procédés visent à éliminer les polluants émergents tels que les perturbateurs endocriniens ou les produits pharmaceutiques. Dans ce programme, le laboratoire GEPEA est concerné par l’évaluation de l’efficacité des matériaux vis-à-vis de l’élimination des polluants émergents sous irradiations UV et visibles. Pour cela, une méthodologie expérimentale a été établie de façon à exprimer les performances des catalyseurs testés en termes de constantes cinétiques de dégradation, de taux de conversion et de minéralisation des molécules étudiées mais aussi en fonction de la formation de produits intermédiaires. Ces performances sont également évaluées en termes de biodégradabilité, d’effet de toxicité et de perturbation endocrinienne des produits intermédiaires. Dans un premier temps, la méthodologie expérimentale établie a été testée sur la dégradation de la tétracycline en utilisant un catalyseur de référence puis, elle a été appliquée sur la dégradation respective du bisphénol A et de la 17β-oestradiol en utilisant un catalyseur de référence et les catalyseurs élaborés dans le cadre du projet Clean Water. Les résultats sur la dégradation de la tétracycline ont montré que i) les intermédiaires réactionnels sont moins toxiques que la tétracycline, ii) la structure des intermédiaires réactionnelles est semblable à celle de la tétracycline ce qui explique la faible biodégradabilité de ces intermédiaires. Concernant la dégradation du bisphénol A et de la 17β-oestradiol, les résultats ont montré que i) les catalyseurs sont efficaces sous irradiation solaire simulée. Cependant, l’efficacité photocatalytique du catalyseur dépend du composé à dégrader, ii) la nature des intermédiaires réactionnels identifiés du bisphénol A dépend du catalyseur utilisé, iii) l’effet œstrogénique de la solution d’oestradiol persiste au cours du traitement photocatalytique. / Industrialisation, the use of numerous chemical products in domestic activities and the use of medicine drugs have led to the release in the environment of various substances named "emerging pollutants”. The existing wastewater treatments are not designed to eliminate this kind of pollution and then these pollutants are released into the natural aquatic media. To limit the release of these compounds by waste water treatment plant effluent, a solution could be the use of additional treatment processes such as advanced oxidation processes. In this context, the European project Clean Water has started in 2009. Clean Water involves 7 entities including the GEPEA laboratory-Ecole des Mines de Nantes. The aim of the Clean Water project is to develop sustainable and cost effective water treatment and detoxification processes using TiO2 nanomaterials with UV-visible light response under solar light. These processes act to remove emerging contaminants such as endocrine disruptors and pharmaceuticals. In this program, theGEPEA laboratory is concerned with the evaluation of the efficiency of novel photocatalysts under UV and visible irradiations for the elimination of emerging pollutants. For this purpose, an experimental methodology was established to express the efficiency of the tested catalysts in terms of degradation kinetic constants, pollutants conversion and mineralisation and also in terms of the intermediate products formed. The efficiency of photocatalysts is also evaluated in terms of intermediates biodegradability, toxicity and endocrine disruption effects. First, the experimental methodology was tested on the degradation of tetracycline with a reference catalyst. Then, it was applied to the degradation of bisphenol A and estradiol respectively with the reference catalyst and the catalysts developed within the Clean Water Project. The results obtained on the tetracycline degradation have showed that: i) tetracycline intermediate products are less toxic than tetracycline ii) the intermediates structure is similar to that of tetracycline, this can explain the low biodegradability observed for these intermediates. For the degradation of bisphenol A and estradiol, the results showed that: i) the photocatalysts are efficient under simulated solar irradiation. However, the catalyst photocatalytic efficiency depends on the compound to be degraded ii) the nature of the bisphenol A reaction intermediates identified depends on the catalyst used iii)the estrogenic effect of the estradiol treated solution persists during the photocatalytic treatment.

Goldnanopartikel werden in der kolloidalen Katalyse als Modellsystem genutzt, um den Einfluss des Partikelgröße, der Partikelform und der Zusammensetzung in bimetallischen Systemen sowie der Ligandensphäre auf die katalytische Reduktion von 4-Nitrophenol zu 4-Aminophenol zu untersuchen. Goldnanopartikel eignen sich vor allem deshalb als Modellsystem, da sie in kurzer Zeit, in hohen Ausbeuten und mit definierten Eigenschaften hergestellt werden können. Es konnte erstmals nachgewiesen werden, dass Goldnanopartikel mit einem Durchmesser von 13 nm die höchste katalytische Umsetzungsrate bei der Reduktion von 4-Nitrophenolzu 4-Aminophenol besitzen. Im Zuge dieser Arbeit wird dieses Aktivitätsmaximum der Nanopartikel näher untersucht. Dazu werden drei Aspekte vorgestellt: die Abhängigkeit von der Goldnanopartikelform, die Abhängigkeit der Substratgröße und der Einfluss der Ligandensphäre auf die Katalyse. Überraschenderweise ist CTAB als oberflächenaktiver Ligand ein Co-Katalysator bei der Reduktion, während die Anwesenheit von Natriumcitrat die Reaktion verlangsamt. Es wurden Aspekte wie die Konzentration und die Größe der Goldnanopartikel in dem komplexen Wechselspiel der Aktivitäten des Katalysators und Co-Katalysators untersucht. Dies führte zu der beispielgebenden Erkenntnis, dass oberflächenaktive Liganden mit positiver Ladung und Stickstofffunktionen die Katalyse positiv beeinflussen. In einer weiteren Studie wurde der Reaktionsmechanismus der 6-Elektronenreduktion von 4-Nitrophenol zu 4-Aminophenol erforscht. Es konnte zum ersten Mal gezeigt werden, dass die Reduktion in zwei Teilschritten abläuft. N-Arylhydroxylamin ist als wichtiges Intermediat in der Lösung der Reduktion erstmals nachgewiesen worden. Drei kinetische Regime werden für die Reduktion von 4-Nitrophenol gefunden und geben einen Einblick in die Oberflächenreaktion von Nitroaromaten an Goldnanopartikeln. / Gold nanoparticles as model systems in colloidal catalysis are used to gain insights into the decisive parameters of the catalytic model reduction. Size, shape, composition of bimetallic systems, and ligand sphere are factors influencing the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol by sodium borohydride in the presence of gold nanoparticles. The increasing interest in gold nanoparticle catalysis is mainly due to their stability, their fast and high yield synthesis as well as their extraordinary diversity of the modes of preparation. This thesis is assigned to unravel the important parameters of gold nanoparticle catalysis. In the first part of the thesis, CTAB-stabilized gold nanoparticles were synthesized by applying the seeding-growth approach in order to gain information about the size dependence of the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol with sodium borohydride. Unexpectedly, CTAB-stabilized gold nanoparticles with a diameter of 13nm were most efficient in this complex system. In this context, molecular aspects such as shape, size of the substrate and ligand sphere were discussed as possible reasons for the enhanced activity for medium sized gold nanoparticles. Here, it was shown for the first time that the ligand sphere plays a crucial role in colloidal catalysis. Micellar catalysis with colloidal gold nanoparticles was performed by means of ligand exchange procedures. In addition, this thesis shows for the first time that intermediates can be unambiguously identified in the reaction solution with colloidal gold nanoparticles as catalysts. 4-N-hydroxylaminophenol was found to be the key intermediate in this system. In this context, three kinetic regimes which were crucial for the aromatic nitro reduction are found to cover the reaction kinetics. Thus, this thesis provides new insight into the catalytic process itself and leads to a better understanding of the catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles.

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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-161). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.); Submitted to the University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California (US); 15 Dec 2004. / Published through the Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information. "LBNL--56814" Westerberg, Staffan Per Gustav. USDOE Director. Office of Science. Office of Basic Energy Sciences (US) 12/15/2004. Report is also available in paper and microfiche from NTIS.