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An electrochemical demonstration of the energy cycle and maximum quantum yield in photosynthesis
(1953)
1. The electrochemical method of Tödt for the determination of oxygen gas has been applied to the measurement of (1) the quantum requirement of photosynthesis and (2) the course of the light reaction and the dark back-oxidation over very short time periods (seconds).
2. With this new and independent, galvanometric method, the earlier results obtained by us with manometry have been confirmed, that is, attainment of a limiting quantum requirement of about 3 in the cycle of light and dark reactions. All significant objections raised regarding the time lag of manometry, as used by us, are thereby refuted.
3. Quantum requirements with single illumination periods as short as 5 seconds have been reported, and much shorter periods are shown possible.
4. The new electrochemical method opens up a field of investigation closed, on a time basis, to manometry. Nevertheless, manometry, with which the energetics of photosynthesis was discovered, can never be given up: for it alone of all methods gives information about both gases, oxygen and carbon dioxide.