Figure 3.

The transient species formed after photoexcitation of DHE transfers is an excited triplet state. Representative kinetics (A) and absorption spectra of a transient species generated at indicated times after photoexcitation of oxidised DHE with a 5 ns laser pulse of 355 nm wavelength in argon-saturated acetone in the presence of zeaxanthin (B). The lifetime of 420-nm-absorbing species is shortened in the presence of zeaxanthin, in comparison with its lifetime in the absence of zeaxanthin, shown in Figure 2B, and decays with concomitant formation of zeaxanthin triplet state with a maximum at 510–520 nm. Zeaxanthin contributes to the absorption of light at 340 nm, which results in more complex kinetics of the recovery of the ground-states than in the absence of zeaxanthin.