It is more soluble than chlorophyll a in polar solvents because of its carbonyl group.

[2] In land plants, the light-harvesting antennae around photosystem II contain the majority of chlorophyll b.

[4] In most plants, chlorophyll is derived from glutamate and is synthesised along a branched pathway that is shared with heme and siroheme.

[5][6][7] The initial steps incorporate glutamic acid into 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA); two molecules of ALA are then reduced to porphobilinogen (PBG), and four molecules of PBG are coupled, forming protoporphyrin IX.

Chlorophyll synthase[8] is the enzyme that completes the biosynthesis of chlorophyll b[9][10] by catalysing the reaction EC 2.5.1.62 This forms an ester of the carboxylic acid group in chlorophyllide b with the 20-carbon diterpene alcohol phytol.