Cobalt-Oxo Core of a Water-Oxidizing Catalyst Film

摘要

Photosynthetic water oxidation is crucial for life on Earth. It is efficiently catalyzed by a pentanuclear Mn_4Ca complex bound to amino acid residues of photosystem Ⅱ (PSII), which is characterized by a compact metal-oxo core with several di-μ-oxo bridges between Mn ions. For large-scale technological production of molecular hydrogen (or other fuels) from water, synthetic water-oxidation catalysts that are (ⅰ) similarly efficient as the photosynthetic Mn complex and (ⅱ) based on inexpensive and abundant materials are needed.