Abstract
Photosynthetic oxygen evolution is one of the most important and fundamental biological processes on the earth, and catalyzed by the Mn cluster composed of 4 Mn and 1 Ca. However, the mechanism of the oxygen evolution is still largely unknown despite of extensive studies. To understand the mechanism, it is essential to know the structure of the Mn cluster and the chemical changes of its ligands including substrate water during the reaction process. Here, we present the recent progress on the study of the oxygen evolution, based on the results mainly from FTIR spectroscopy as well as X-ray crystallography.
