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.