Chinese Journal of Nature ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (3): 199-208.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2021.03.005

• Review Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Photosynthetic oxygen-evolving reaction

ZHANG Chunxi   

  1. Laboratory of Photochemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • Received:2021-05-26 Online:2021-06-25 Published:2021-06-13

Abstract: Photosynthetic oxygen-evolving center in photosystem II (PSII) of plant is a unique biological catalyst that catalyzes the water oxidation into electrons, protons and dioxygen in high efficiency and high safety using solar energy. Its synthesis, structure and
catalytic mechanism are great challenge in photosynthetic research. Recently, the high-resolution crystal structure of PSII has revealed the detailed structure of the unique Mn4CaO5-cluster of this natural catalyst. This advance provides a solid basis for the further investigation of the catalytic mechanism of photosynthetic oxygen-evolving reaction at an atom level, which is also a blueprint for the chemical synthesis of the OEC in laboratory. We have succeeded in synthesizing a series of artificial Mn4CaO4-clusters that closely mimic both the structure and physicochemical properties of the natural OEC in PSII. These synthetic Mn4CaO4-clusters provide a good chemical model to investigate the catalytic mechanism of the OEC and open a new direction for the development of high efficiency and low-cost artificial catalysts for the water-splitting reaction in future. Notably, there are still many scientific questions urgent to be answered in both natural and artificial photosynthetic oxygen evolution.