@article{NollWuerthner2024,
  author    = {Noll, Niklas and W{\"u}rthner, Frank},
  title     = {Bioinspired water preorganization in confined space for efficient water oxidation catalysis in metallosupramolecular ruthenium architectures},
  series = {Accounts of Chemical Research},
  volume    = {57},
  journal   = {Accounts of Chemical Research},
  number    = {10},
  issn      = {0001-4842},
  doi       = {10.1021/acs.accounts.4c00148},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-361232},
  pages     = {1538-1549},
  year      = {2024},
  abstract  = {Conspectus Nature has established a sustainable way to maintain aerobic life on earth by inventing one of the most sophisticated biological processes, namely, natural photosynthesis, which delivers us with organic matter and molecular oxygen derived from the two abundant resources sunlight and water. The thermodynamically demanding photosynthetic water splitting is catalyzed by the oxygen-evolving complex in photosystem II (OEC-PSII), which comprises a distorted tetramanganese-calcium cluster (CaMn\(_4\)O\(_5\)) as catalytic core. As an ubiquitous concept for fine-tuning and regulating the reactivity of the active site of metalloenzymes, the surrounding protein domain creates a sophisticated environment that promotes substrate preorganization through secondary, noncovalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding or electrostatic interactions. Based on the high-resolution X-ray structure of PSII, several water channels were identified near the active site, which are filled with extensive hydrogen-bonding networks of preorganized water molecules, connecting the OEC with the protein surface. As an integral part of the outer coordination sphere of natural metalloenzymes, these channels control the substrate and product delivery, carefully regulate the proton flow by promoting pivotal proton-coupled electron transfer processes, and simultaneously stabilize short-lived oxidized intermediates, thus highlighting the importance of an ordered water network for the remarkable efficiency of the natural OEC. Transferring this concept from nature to the engineering of artificial metal catalysts for fuel production has fostered the fascinating field of metallosupramolecular chemistry by generating defined cavities that conceptually mimic enzymatic pockets. However, the application of supramolecular approaches to generate artificial water oxidation catalysts remained scarce prior to our initial reports, since such molecular design strategies for efficient activation of substrate water molecules in confined nanoenvironments were lacking. In this Account, we describe our research efforts on combining the state-of-the art Ru(bda) catalytic framework with structurally programmed ditopic ligands to guide the water oxidation process in defined metallosupramolecular assemblies in spatial proximity. We will elucidate the governing factors that control the quality of hydrogen-bonding water networks in multinuclear cavities of varying sizes and geometries to obtain high-performance, state-of-the-art water oxidation catalysts. Pushing the boundaries of artificial catalyst design, embedding a single catalytic Ru center into a well-defined molecular pocket enabled sophisticated water preorganization in front of the active site through an encoded basic recognition site, resulting in high catalytic rates comparable to those of the natural counterpart OEC-PSII. To fully explore their potential for solar fuel devices, the suitability of our metallosupramolecular assemblies was demonstrated under (electro)chemical and photocatalytic water oxidation conditions. In addition, testing the limits of structural diversity allowed the fabrication of self-assembled linear coordination oligomers as novel photocatalytic materials and long-range ordered covalent organic framework (COF) materials as recyclable and long-term stable solid-state materials for future applications.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{BoldStolteShoyamaetal.2022,
  author    = {Bold, Kevin and Stolte, Matthias and Shoyama, Kazutaka and Holzapfel, Marco and Schmiedel, Alexander and Lambert, Christoph and W{\"u}rthner, Frank},
  title     = {Macrocyclic donor-acceptor dyads composed of a perylene bisimide dye surrounded by oligothiophene bridges},
  series = {Angewandte Chemie Internationale Edition},
  volume    = {61},
  journal   = {Angewandte Chemie Internationale Edition},
  number    = {1},
  doi       = {10.1002/anie.202113598},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-256569},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Two macrocyclic architectures comprising oligothiophene strands that connect the imide positions of a perylene bisimide (PBI) dye have been synthesized via a platinum-mediated cross-coupling strategy. The crystal structure of the double bridged PBI reveals all syn-arranged thiophene units that completely enclose the planar PBI chromophore via a 12-membered macrocycle. The target structures were characterized by steady-state UV/Vis absorption, fluorescence and transient absorption spectroscopy, as well as cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry. Both donor-acceptor dyads show ultrafast F{\"o}rster Resonance Energy Transfer and photoinduced electron transfer, thereby leading to extremely low fluorescence quantum yields even in the lowest polarity cyclohexane solvent.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WuerthnerMezaChinchaSchindleretal.2021,
  author    = {W{\"u}rthner, Frank and Meza-Chincha, Ana-Lucia and Schindler, Dorothee and Natali, Mirco},
  title     = {Effects of Photosensitizers and Reaction Media on Light-Driven Water Oxidation with Trinuclear Ruthenium Macrocycles},
  series = {ChemPhotoChem},
  volume    = {5},
  journal   = {ChemPhotoChem},
  number    = {2},
  doi       = {10.1002/cptc.202000133},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-230116},
  pages     = {173-183},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Photocatalytic water oxidation is a promising process for the production of solar fuels and the elucidation of factors that influence this process is of high significance. Thus, we have studied in detail light-driven water oxidation with a trinuclear Ru(bda) (bda: 2,2'-bipyridine-6,6'-dicarboxylate) macrocycle MC3 and its highly water soluble derivative m-CH\(_2\)NMe\(_2\)-MC3 using a series of ruthenium tris(bipyridine) complexes as photosensitizers under varied reaction conditions. Our investigations showed that the catalytic activities of these Ru macrocycles are significantly affected by the choice of photosensitizer (PS) and reaction media, in addition to buffer concentration, light intensity and concentration of the sensitizer. Our steady-state and transient spectroscopic studies revealed that the photocatalytic performance of trinuclear Ru(bda) macrocycles is not limited by their intrinsic catalytic activities but rather by the efficiency of photogeneration of oxidant PS\(^+\) and its ability to act as an oxidizing agent to the catalysts as both are strongly dependent on the choice of photosensitizer and the amount of employed organic co-solvent.},
  language  = {en}
}