Photosynthesis
Green plants and some protists trap light energy and store it as sugar.
Energy will be made through the process of photosynthesis.
Low level inorganic molecules plus the sun’s energy will be used to make organic
molecules.
2 phases
Light -dependent reaction.
1. Converts light energy into chemical energy.
2. ATP and NADPH is made
3. Requires direct involvement of light.
4. Electrons are replaced by splitting water, therefore the chlorophyll is allowed to
keep working.
Light-independent reaction
1. Does not involve direct sunlight or light.
2. Converts the energy from ATP and NADPH into storable energy- sugar (glucose
3. Calvin Cycle allows this process to occur.
Sugars are used to meet the plant's energy needs.
A. Able to build larger, more complex molecules.
a. Starch
b. Cellulose
B. Green organisms are able to be self-sufficient
a. Chlorophyll is the pigment that allows plants to
b. Absorbs most wavelengths of light except green
Chemical equation
6 CO2 + 6H20
C6H1206 + 6O2
make energy.
~ Chlorophyll often hides the other pigments present in leaves. In Autumn,
chlorophyll breaks down, allowing xanthophyll and carotene, and newly made
anthocyanin, to show their colors.
~ The mix of pigments in a leaf may be separated into bands of color by the
technique of paper chromatography.
~Chromatography (Color Writing)
- involves the separation of mixtures into individual components.
- paper holds the substances by absorption
- capillary action pulls the substances up the paper at different rates.
- pigments are separated on the paper and show up as colored
streaks.
~ The retention factor (Rƒ) is the ratio of the distance traveled by the
substance to the distance traveled by the solvent.