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Updated: Apr 11, 2026

Catalytic Scavenging of Plant Reactive Oxygen Species In Vivo by Anionic Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles
Published on: August 26, 2018
An engineered polypeptide around nano-sized manganese-calcium oxide: copying plants for water oxidation
Mohammad Mahdi Najafpour1, Mohadeseh Zarei Ghobadi, Bahram Sarvi
1Department of Chemistry, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan, 45137-66731, Iran. mmnajafpour@iasbs.ac.ir.
Abstract:
Synthesis of new efficient catalysts inspired by Nature is a key goal in the production of clean fuel. Different compounds based on manganese oxide have been investigated in order to find their water-oxidation activity. Herein, we introduce a novel engineered polypeptide containing tyrosine around nano-sized manganese-calcium oxide, which was shown to be a highly active catalyst toward water oxidation at low overpotential (240 mV), with high turnover frequency of 1.5 × 10(-2) s(-1) at pH = 6.3 in the Mn(III)/Mn(IV) oxidation range. The compound is a novel structural and efficient functional model for the water-oxidizing complex in Photosystem II. A new proposed clever strategy used by Nature in water oxidation is also discussed. The new model of the water-oxidizing complex opens a new perspective for synthesis of efficient water-oxidation catalysts.
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