Effect of micellar species on the photostability of Mg chlorophyll-a and the photoinduced hydrogen production with Mg chlorophyll-a by use of three component system consisting of NADPH, methylviologen and colloidal platinum was investigated. Triton X-100 and CTAB solublized Mg chlorophyll-a solution were rapidly bleached by irradiation and 50% of Mg chlorophyll-a was degraded in 90 min irradiation. On the other hand, the decay rate of Mg chlorophyll-a concentration in the presence of NADPH was suppressed and the degradation rate was 15% in 90 min irradiation. The effective hydrogen production system was developed using CTAB solubilized Mg chlorophyll-a (2.7 mumol in 4 h), compared with that using Triton X-100 solubilized Mg chlorophyll-a (0.1 mumol in 4 h). (C) 2003 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.