Unveiling the Reactivity of a Synthetic Mimic of the Oxygen Evolving Complex

We simulated for the first time the oxygen-oxygen bond formation in a synthetic calcium-tetra manganese complex recently developed by Zhang and co-workers. In spite of promising structural similarities to the native oxygen evolving complex (OEC) in Photosystem II, several uncertainties on the mimic stability in water and on its potential catalytic activity still persist. Here, we characterized at density functional theory level the electronic and structural features of the Sn states of the complex, along with the oxygen-oxygen bond formation reaction, proposing a reasonable model for the hydrate complex. As a main finding, both the synthetic compound and the natural OEC show very close energetic barriers for the oxo-oxyl coupling process, suggesting that key electronic features of the natural OEC reactivity are well reproduced. This result strongly encourages the use of this synthetic complex in combination with other molecular assemblies for the design of successful artificial leaves.