Theory of chemical bonds in metalloenzymes XVIII. Importance of mixed-valence configurations for Mn5O5, CaMn4O5 and Ca2Mn3O5 clusters revealed by UB3LYP computations. A bio-inspired strategy for artificial photosynthesis

Electronic and spin structures of CaMn4Ox clusters in the S0 state of the oxygen evolving complex of photosystem II. Domain-based local pair natural orbital (DLPNO) coupled-cluster (CC) calculations using optimized geometries and natural orbitals (UNO) by hybrid density functional theory (HDFT) calculations

Domain-based local pair natural orbital (DLPNO) coupled cluster single and double (CCSD) with triple perturbation (T) correction methods were performed to elucidate the relative stabilities of ten different intermediate structures of the CaMn4Ox cluster in the S0 state of the oxygen evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II (PSII). Full geometry optimizations of all the S0 intermediates were performed by the UB3LYP-D3/Def2-TZVP methods, providing the assumed geometrical structures and starting natural orbitals (UNO) for DLPNO-CCSD(T)/Def2TZVP calculations. The effective exchange integrals (J) for the spin Hamiltonian models for the ten intermediates were obtained by the UB3LYP/Def2-TZVP calculations followed by the general spin projections. DLPNO-CCSD(T) calculations followed by the CBS extrapolation procedure elucidated that the (II, III, IV, IV) and (III, III, III, IV) valence states in the CaMn4O5 cluster of the OEC of the PS II were nearly degenerated in energy in the S0 state, indicating an important role of dynamical electron correlation effects for the valence and spin fluctuations in strongly correlated electron systems (SCESs) consisting of 3d transition metals.

Understanding Two Different Structures in the Dark Stable State of the Oxygen-Evolving Complex of Photosystem II: Applicability of the Jahn-Teller Deformation Formula

Tanaka et al. (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 1718) recently reported the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the oxygen evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II (PSII) by X-ray diffraction (XRD) using extremely low X-ray doses of 0.03 and 0.12 MGy. They observed two different 3D structures of the CaMn4O5 cluster with different hydrogen-bonding interactions in the S1 state of OEC keeping the surrounding polypeptide frameworks of PSII the same. Our Jahn-Teller (JT) deformation formula based on large-scale quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) was applied for these low-dose XRD structures, elucidating important roles of JT effects of the MnIII ion for subtle geometric distortions of the CaMn4O5 cluster in OEC of PSII. The JT deformation formula revealed the similarity between the low-dose XRD and damage-free serial femtosecond X-ray diffraction (SFX) structures of the CaMn4O5 cluster in the dark stable state. The extremely low-dose XRD structures were not damaged by X-ray irradiation. Implications of the present results are discussed in relation to recent SFX results and a blue print for the design of artificial photocatalysts for water oxidation.

How does ammonia bind to the oxygen-evolving complex in the S2state of photosynthetic water oxidation? Theoretical support and implications for the W1 substitution mechanism

The mechanistic study shows that NH₃substitutes W1 rather than O5 of the OEC in the S₂state and leaves in the S₄′ state.

Ab initio electronic structure study of a model water splitting dimer complex

A model manganese dimer electrocatalyst bridged by μ-OH ligands is used to investigate changes in spin states that may occur during water oxidation. We have employed restricted open-shell Hartree-Fock (ROHF), second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF), and multireference second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MRMP2) calculations to investigate this system. Multiconfigurational methods like CASSCF and MRMP2 are appropriate methods to study these systems with antiferromagnetically-coupled electrons. Orbital occupations and distributions have been closely analyzed to understand the electronic details and contributions to the water splitting from manganese and oxygen atoms. The presence of Mn(IV)O˙ radical moieties has been observed in this catalytic pathway. Multiple nearly degenerate excited states were found close to the ground state in all structures. This suggests competing potential energy landscapes near the ground state may influence the reactivity of manganese complexes such as the dimers studied in this work.