Assemblies of ionic zinc chlorins assisted by water-soluble polypeptides.

Artificial chlorophyll-peptide complexes were prepared by mixing ionic chlorophyll derivatives and oligopeptides in aqueous media containing a small amount of organic solvent. The pigment-peptide complexes provided chlorophyll assemblies showing a sharp red-shifted Qy absorption band concomitant with giant circular dichroism signals. The polypeptide-assisted assemblies of chlorophyllous pigments would afford a good model for photosynthetic apparatuses such as pigment-protein complexes of light-harvesting antennas.