Water splitting is one of the critical reactions that
sustain life on earth, and could be a key to the creation of future fuels. It
is a key in the process of photosynthesis, through which plants produce glucose
and oxygen from water and carbon dioxide, using sunlight as energy. However,
there are still significant mysteries about the process. Nature's own
water-splitting catalysts—which are based on manganese rather than more common
elements such as iron, copper, or nickel—are incredibly efficient, and
scientists have long been studying why this is so and how we can mimic the
natural system.