TY - JOUR A1 - Schlossarek, Tim A1 - Stepanenko, Vladimir A1 - Beuerle, Florian A1 - Würthner, Frank T1 - Self‐assembled Ru(bda) Coordination Oligomers as Efficient Catalysts for Visible Light‐Driven Water Oxidation in Pure Water JF - Angewandte Chemie International Edition N2 - Water‐soluble multinuclear complexes based on ruthenium 2,2′‐bipyridine‐6,6′‐dicarboxylate (bda) and ditopic bipyridine linker units are investigated in three‐component visible light‐driven water oxidation catalysis. Systematic studies revealed a strong enhancement of the catalytic efficiency in the absence of organic co‐solvents and with increasing oligomer length. In‐depth kinetic and morphological investigations suggest that the enhanced performance is induced by the self‐assembly of linear Ru(bda) oligomers into aggregated superstructures. The obtained turnover frequencies (up to 14.9 s\(^{−1}\)) and turnover numbers (more than 1000) per ruthenium center are the highest reported so far for Ru(bda)‐based photocatalytic water oxidation systems. KW - artificial photosynthesis KW - coordination oligomer KW - photocatalysis KW - Ruthenium complexes KW - water oxidation Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-312184 VL - 61 IS - 52 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Noll, Niklas A1 - Krause, Ana-Maria A1 - Beuerle, Florian A1 - Würthner, Frank T1 - Enzyme-like water preorganization in a synthetic molecular cleft for homogeneous water oxidation catalysis JF - Nature Catalysis N2 - 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. KW - water oxidation KW - enzyme KW - catalysis KW - molecular KW - catalyst synthesis KW - catalytic mechanisms KW - homogeneous catalysis KW - photocatalysis KW - supramolecular chemistry Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-302897 N1 - This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use (https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/policies/accepted-manuscript-terms), but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00843-x ET - accepted version ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Karak, Suvendu A1 - Stepanenko, Vladimir A1 - Addicoat, Matthew A. A1 - Keßler, Philipp A1 - Moser, Simon A1 - Beuerle, Florian A1 - Würthner, Frank T1 - A Covalent Organic Framework for Cooperative Water Oxidation JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society N2 - The future of water-derived hydrogen as the “sustainable energy source” straightaway bets on the success of the sluggish oxygen-generating half-reaction. The endeavor to emulate the natural photosystem II for efficient water oxidation has been extended across the spectrum of organic and inorganic combinations. However, the achievement has so far been restricted to homogeneous catalysts rather than their pristine heterogeneous forms. The poor structural understanding and control over the mechanistic pathway often impede the overall development. Herein, we have synthesized a highly crystalline covalent organic framework (COF) for chemical and photochemical water oxidation. The interpenetrated structure assures the catalyst stability, as the catalyst’s performance remains unaltered after several cycles. This COF exhibits the highest ever accomplished catalytic activity for such an organometallic crystalline solid-state material where the rate of oxygen evolution is as high as ∼26,000 μmol L\(^{–1}\) s\(^{–1}\) (second-order rate constant k ≈ 1650 μmol L s\(^{–1}\) g\(^{–2}\)). The catalyst also proves its exceptional activity (k ≈ 1600 μmol L s\(^{–1}\) g\(^{–2}\)) during light-driven water oxidation under very dilute conditions. The cooperative interaction between metal centers in the crystalline network offers 20–30-fold superior activity during chemical as well as photocatalytic water oxidation as compared to its amorphous polymeric counterpart. KW - water oxidation KW - sustainable energy source KW - covalent organic framework KW - catalyst KW - crystalline KW - catalysis KW - nanoparticles Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-287591 UR - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.2c07282 SN - 0002-7863 VL - 144 IS - 38 ER -