@article{NollKrauseBeuerleetal.2022,
  author    = {Noll, Niklas and Krause, Ana-Maria and Beuerle, Florian and W{\"u}rthner, Frank},
  title     = {Enzyme-like water preorganization in a synthetic molecular cleft for homogeneous water oxidation catalysis},
  series = {Nature Catalysis},
  journal   = {Nature Catalysis},
  edition   = {accepted version},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41929-022-00843-x},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-302897},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Inspired by the proficiency of natural enzymes, mimicking of nanoenvironments for precise substrate preorganisation is a promising strategy in catalyst design. However, artificial examples of enzyme-like activation of H\(_2\)O molecules for the challenging oxidative water splitting reaction are hardly explored. Here, we introduce a mononuclear Ru(bda) complex (M1, bda: 2,2'-bipyridine-6,6'-dicarboxylate) equipped with a bipyridine-functionalized ligand to preorganize H\(_2\)O molecules in front of the metal center as in enzymatic clefts. The confined pocket of M1 accelerates chemically driven water oxidation at pH 1 by facilitating a water nucleophilic attack pathway with a remarkable turnover frequency of 140 s\(^{-1}\) that is comparable to the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II. Single crystal X-ray analysis of M1 under catalytic conditions allowed the observation of a 7th H\(_2\)O ligand directly coordinated to a RuIII center. Via a well-defined hydrogen-bonding network, another H\(_2\)O substrate is preorganized for the crucial O-O bond formation via nucleophilic attack.},
  language  = {en}
}