“ Following publication of this work in Science in March, leading
specialists in artificial photosynthesis such as Styring are eager to
start working on mimicking the water-splitting process in the laboratory.
Attempts to do so have failed so far because the process is so finely
balanced that the geometry has to be just right. Only now do researchers
have sufficient detail of the geometry to start building workable systems.
“Although such artificial systems will mimic the water-splitting chemistry
of natural photosynthesis, they will not look like plants. Artificial
systems will use metals such as ruthenium and iron to capture light and
provide a scaffold for the water-splitting core. But the core itself would
be based on manganese.”
