A supramolecular ruthenium macrocycle with high catalytic activity for water oxidation that mechanistically mimics photosystem II

Mimicking the ingenuity of nature and exploiting the billions of years over which natural selection has developed numerous effective biochemical conversions is one of the most successful strategies in a chemist's toolbox. However, an inability to replicate the elegance and efficiency of the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II (OEC-PSII) in its oxidation of water into O2 is a significant bottleneck in the development of a closed-loop sustainable energy cycle. Here, we present an artificial metallosupramolecular macrocycle that gathers three Ru(bda) centres (bda = 2,2′-bipyridine-6,6′-dicarboxylic acid) that catalyses water oxidation. The macrocyclic architecture accelerates the rate of water oxidation via a water nucleophilic attack mechanism, similar to the mechanism exhibited by OEC-PSII, and reaches remarkable catalytic turnover frequencies >100 s–1. Photo-driven water oxidation yields outstanding activity, even in the nM concentration regime, with a turnover number of >1,255 and turnover frequency of >13.1 s–1. Designing improved catalysts is predicated on understanding how they work. Now, by positioning three ruthenium centres in a macrocyclic framework, a remarkable acceleration of catalytic water oxidation has been achieved. Detailed mechanistic studies revealed that the catalyst operates through the ‘water nucleophilic attack’ pathway—similar to the natural oxygen-evolving cluster of photosystem II.