Artificial photosynthesis: photosensitizer/catalyst supramolecular assemblies for light driven water oxidation

Three new supramolecular assemblies SA1-SA3 with different linkages between the photosensitizer and catalyst have been synthesized for light driven water oxidation. With flexible -CH2-CH2- chains as the linkage, the assembly SA3 displays the best performance for photocatalytic water oxidation compared with the other two assemblies, a turnover number of 34 has been obtained based on the molecular assembly SA3 in a homogeneous system. This type of assembly connected with flexible linkages represents suitable candidates to construct photoanodes for light driven water splitting in dye sensitized photoelectrochemical devices.