Chlorophyll ''f'' is a type form of

chlorophyll Chlorophyll (also chlorophyl) is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words , ("pale green") and , ("leaf"). Chlorophyll allow plants to ...

that absorbs further in the red (

infrared light Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from arou ...

) than other chlorophylls. In 2010, it was reported from

stromatolite Stromatolites () or stromatoliths () are layered sedimentary formations ( microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria). T ...

s from Western Australia's

Shark Bay Shark Bay ( Malgana: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay area is located approximately north of Perth, on the ...

. The finding was made by scientists at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

led by Professor Min Chen, and is the first discovery of a new form of chlorophyll in 60 years. However, the function of chlorophyll ''f'' in photosynthetic reactions is uncertain and the ecological distribution of chlorophyll ''f'' remains unknown. Chlorophyll ''f'' has been shown to support some of the roles in photosynthetic reactions, in both the energy transfer and in the charge separation processes. Based on NMR data,

optical Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...

and

mass spectra A mass spectrum is a histogram plot of intensity vs. ''mass-to-charge ratio'' (''m/z'') in a chemical sample, usually acquired using an instrument called a ''mass spectrometer''. Not all mass spectra of a given substance are the same; for example ...

and

density functional theory Density-functional theory (DFT) is a computational quantum mechanical modelling method used in physics, chemistry and materials science to investigate the electronic structure (or nuclear structure) (principally the ground state) of many-body ...

(DFT) simulation, it is confirmed to have a structure of C₅₅H₇₀O₆N₄Mg or -formyl.html" ;"title="formyl.html" ;"title="-formyl">-formyl">formyl.html" ;"title="-formyl">-formylchlorophyll a. In the test tube the peak absorption wavelength is 706 nm, which is just over the red visible light limit in the near infrared. Fluorescence occurs at 722 nm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chlorophyll F Tetrapyrroles Photosynthetic pigments