I am a high school student taking AP Bio, and this part of photosynthesis confuses me. I’d appreciate a sort of detailed explanation
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TL;DR: shining a light(=photon=energy) on an atom forces the electron to jump up a shell, thus making it more unstable and therefore reactive
Allright, so this is the explanation to my understanding:
Most of us know about Bohrs atomic model with the electrons only existing in specific orbits/shells around the nucleus of the atom, right? These orbits are actually just representations of energy levels (also Bohrs words).
But we also know that these electrons are moving spontaneously, and everything moving must consume energy, right? Therefore the atom needs a way to regulate energy within itself in order not to collapse, and it does this by changing orbits/energy levels. The higher the orbit, the more energy in the electron. Here it’s important to note, that light is practically just a clump of photons, which contain energy.
When an atom is hit by a photon, with a very specific amount of energy, it absorbs this energy and jumps from e.g. the first shell to the second shell. We call this absorption. The opposite happens when the electron throws a photon out and jumps from e.g. the second to the third shell. Thats called emission.
So thats great and all, but a little more physics than expected, right? Try to remember, that each electron and atom wants to be as stable as possible. How do we do this? Have a low level of energy! Thats why they looove being in the inner shell. When you shine light upon these plants (or substitutionreactions in orgo, for that matter) it excites the electrons within the molecules of the plants, making them even more reactive.
Though i must admit, I don’t know if this is applicable for the plants. I must assume it is
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