scholarly journals Mediator-assisted water oxidation by the ruthenium “blue dimer” cis,cis-[(bpy)2(H2O)RuORu(OH2)(bpy)2]4+

2008 ◽  
Vol 105 (46) ◽  
pp. 17632-17635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier J. Concepcion ◽  
Jonah W. Jurss ◽  
Joseph L. Templeton ◽  
Thomas J. Meyer

Light-driven water oxidation occurs in oxygenic photosynthesis in photosystem II and provides redox equivalents directed to photosystem I, in which carbon dioxide is reduced. Water oxidation is also essential in artificial photosynthesis and solar fuel-forming reactions, such as water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen (2 H2O + 4 hν → O2 + 2 H2) or water reduction of CO2 to methanol (2 H2O + CO2 + 6 hν → CH3OH + 3/2 O2), or hydrocarbons, which could provide clean, renewable energy. The “blue ruthenium dimer,” cis,cis-[(bpy)2(H2O)RuIIIORuIII(OH2)(bpy)2]4+, was the first well characterized molecule to catalyze water oxidation. On the basis of recent insight into the mechanism, we have devised a strategy for enhancing catalytic rates by using kinetically facile electron-transfer mediators. Rate enhancements by factors of up to ≈30 have been obtained, and preliminary electrochemical experiments have demonstrated that mediator-assisted electrocatalytic water oxidation is also attainable.

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-38
Author(s):  
Jian-Ren Shen ◽  
Yoshiki Nakajima ◽  
Fusamichi Akita ◽  
Michihiro Suga

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (23) ◽  
pp. 12624-12635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ibrahim ◽  
Thomas Fransson ◽  
Ruchira Chatterjee ◽  
Mun Hon Cheah ◽  
Rana Hussein ◽  
...  

In oxygenic photosynthesis, light-driven oxidation of water to molecular oxygen is carried out by the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) in photosystem II (PS II). Recently, we reported the room-temperature structures of PS II in the four (semi)stable S-states, S1, S2, S3, and S0, showing that a water molecule is inserted during the S2→ S3transition, as a new bridging O(H)-ligand between Mn1 and Ca. To understand the sequence of events leading to the formation of this last stable intermediate state before O2formation, we recorded diffraction and Mn X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) data at several time points during the S2→ S3transition. At the electron acceptor site, changes due to the two-electron redox chemistry at the quinones, QAand QB, are observed. At the donor site, tyrosine YZand His190 H-bonded to it move by 50 µs after the second flash, and Glu189 moves away from Ca. This is followed by Mn1 and Mn4 moving apart, and the insertion of OX(H) at the open coordination site of Mn1. This water, possibly a ligand of Ca, could be supplied via a “water wheel”-like arrangement of five waters next to the OEC that is connected by a large channel to the bulk solvent. XES spectra show that Mn oxidation (τ of ∼350 µs) during the S2→ S3transition mirrors the appearance of OXelectron density. This indicates that the oxidation state change and the insertion of water as a bridging atom between Mn1 and Ca are highly correlated.


The Copley Medal is awarded to Dr R. Hill, F. R. S., in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the understanding of the nature and mechanism of the main pathway of electron transport in photosynthesis. Almost fifty years ago Hill made the first important discovery that allowed detailed chemical analysis of the pathways of photosynthesis, when he demon­strated the light-driven oxidation of water by isolated chloroplasts, and this made it possible to study water oxidation separately from carbon-dioxide reduction. This was the starting point in the elucidation of the electron-transfer pathway in photosynthesis, and in 1951 Hill, with R. Scarisbrick, uncovered the first com­ponent in the chain when they discovered cytochrome and established its key properties. Subsequently, with H. E. Davenport, Hill discovered the second com­ponent of the chain, shown later by others to be ferredoxin. With F. Bendall he formulated the ‘Z-scheme’ to describe the mechanism of electron transfer in photosynthesis in chloroplasts, which showed the relation between the photochemically driven elements and conventional electron-transfer chains found in other biological systems. This proposal brought great clarity to the field and set the scene for further detailed elucidation of the mechanisms.


2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard F. Swiegers ◽  
Douglas R. MacFarlane ◽  
David L. Officer ◽  
Amy Ballantyne ◽  
Danijel Boskovic ◽  
...  

This article reviews some of the recent work by fellows and associates of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) at Monash University and the University of Wollongong, as well as their collaborators, in the field of water oxidation and reduction catalysts. This work is focussed on the production of hydrogen for a hydrogen-based energy technology. Topics include: (1) the role and apparent relevance of the cubane-like structure of the Photosystem II Water Oxidation Complex (PSII-WOC) in non-biological homogeneous and heterogeneous water oxidation catalysts, (2) light-activated conducting polymer catalysts for both water oxidation and reduction, and (3) porphyrin-based light harvesters and catalysts.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. William Rutherford ◽  
Andrea Fantuzzi ◽  
Dario Piano ◽  
Patrycja Haniewicz ◽  
Domenica Farci ◽  
...  

In thylakoid membranes, Photosystem II monomers from the stromal lamellae contain the subunits PsbS and Psb27 (PSIIm-S/27), while Photosystem II monomers from granal regions (PSIIm) lack these subunits. Here, we have isolated and characterised these two types of Photosystem II complexes. The PSIIm-S/27 showed enhanced fluorescence, the near-absence of oxygen evolution, as well as limited and slow electron transfer from QA to QB compared to the near-normal activities in the granal PSIIm. However, when bicarbonate was added to the PSIIm-S/27, water splitting and QA to QB electron transfer rates were comparable to those in granal PSIIm. The findings suggest that the binding of PsbS and/or Psb27 inhibits forward electron transfer and lowers the binding affinity for the bicarbonate. This can be rationalized in terms of the recently discovered photoprotection role played by bicarbonate binding via the redox tuning of the QA/QA?- couple, which controls the charge recombination route, and this limits chlorophyll triplet mediated 1O2 formation (Brinkert K et al. (2016) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 113(43):12144-12149). These findings suggest that PSIIm-S/27 is an intermediate in the assembly of PSII in which PsbS and/or Psb27 restrict PSII activity while in transit, by using a bicarbonate-mediated switch and protective mechanism.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanai Cardona ◽  
Patricia Sánchez-Baracaldo ◽  
A. William Rutherford ◽  
Anthony W. D. Larkum

AbstractPhotosystem II is a photochemical reaction center that catalyzes the light-driven oxidation of water to molecular oxygen. Water oxidation is the distinctive photochemical reaction that permitted the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis and the eventual rise of Eukaryotes. At what point during the history of life an ancestral photosystem evolved the capacity to oxidize water still remains unknown. Here we study the evolution of the core reaction center proteins of Photosystem II using sequence and structural comparisons in combination with Bayesian relaxed molecular clocks. Our results indicate that a homodimeric photosystem with sufficient oxidizing power to split water had already appeared in the early Archean about a billion years before the most recent common ancestor of all described Cyanobacteria capable of oxygenic photosynthesis, and well before the diversification of some of the known groups of anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria. Based on a structural and functional rationale we hypothesize that this early Archean photosystem was capable of water oxidation and had already evolved some level of protection against the formation of reactive oxygen species, which would place primordial forms of oxygenic photosynthesis at a very early stage in the evolutionary history of life.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (11n12) ◽  
pp. 1336-1345
Author(s):  
S. Jimena Mora ◽  
Daniel A. Heredia ◽  
Emmanuel Odella ◽  
Uma Vrudhula ◽  
Devens Gust ◽  
...  

Benzimidazole phenol-porphyrin dyads have been synthesized to study proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) reactions induced by photoexcitation. High-potential porphyrins have been chosen to model P680, the photoactive chlorophyll cluster of photosynthetic photosystem II (PSII). They have either two or three pentafluorophenyl groups at the meso positions to impart the high redox potential. The benzimidazole phenol (BIP) moiety models the Tyr[Formula: see text]-His190 pair of PSII, which is a redox mediator that shuttles electrons from the water oxidation catalyst to P680[Formula: see text]. The dyads consisting of a porphyrin and an unsubstituted BIP are designed to study one-electron one-proton transfer (E1PT) processes upon excitation of the porphyrin. When the BIP moiety is substituted with proton-accepting groups such as imines, one-electron two-proton transfer (E2PT) processes are expected to take place upon oxidation of the phenol by the excited state of the porphyrin. The bis-pentafluorophenyl porphyrins linked to BIPs provide platforms for introducing a variety of electron-accepting moieties and/or anchoring groups to attach semiconductor nanoparticles to the macrocycle. The triads thus formed will serve to study the PCET process involving the BIPs when the oxidation of the phenol is achieved by the photochemically produced radical cation of the porphyrin.


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