Synthesis of Molecular Catalysts for Interconversion between Water and Oxygen

利用可再生能源将水分解为氧/氢及其逆反应，即氧还原为水，是氢经济的基础。为了实现这一目标，必须开发出能够以高能量效率进行两种四电子反应的催化剂。但是，由于现有的催化剂还不成熟，效率也不高，因此，为了深入理解光合作用和呼吸作用中的金属酶的反应模型，我们进行了研究。根据这项研究，我们成功地阐明了这两个反应机制与精细的（功能）模型的酶，并建议他们作为优秀的分子催化剂。

The decomposition of water to oxygen/hydrogen by the renewable energy and its inverse reaction, oxygen reduction to water, are fundamental ones in hydrogen economy. Creation of catalysts to perform both four-electron reactions in high energy-efficiency is important for realizing it. However, since the existing catalysts are still immature and less efficient, we have studied to obtain deep understanding on these reactions modeling of metalloenzymes, which work in photosynthesis and respiration. According to this research, we succeeded to elucidate both reactions mechanism with elaborate (functional) models of the enzymes and to propose them as the excellent molecule catalysts.