Characterization of synthetic oxomanganese complexes and the inorganic core of the O2-evolving complex in photosystem II: evaluation of the DFT/B3LYP level of theory

The capabilities and limitations of the Becke-3-Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP) hybrid density functional are investigated as applied to studies of mixed-valent multinuclear oxomanganese complexes. Benchmark calculations involve the analysis of structural, electronic and magnetic properties of di-, tri- and tetra-nuclear Mn complexes, previously characterized both chemically and spectroscopically, including the di-mu-oxo bridged dimers Mn(III)Mn(IV)(mu-O)(2)(H(2)O)(2)(terpy)(2)](3+) (terpy=2,2':6,2'-terpyridine) and Mn(III)Mn(IV)(mu-O)(2)(phen)(4)](3+) (phen=1,10-phenanthroline), the Mn trimer Mn(3)O(4)(bpy)(4)(H(2)O)(2)](4+) (bpy=2,2'-bipyridine), and the tetramer Mn(4)O(4)L(6)](+) with L=Ph(2)PO(2)(-). Furthermore, the density functional theory (DFT) B3LYP level is applied to analyze the hydrated Mn(3)O(4)CaMn cluster completely ligated by water, OH(-), Cl(-), carboxylate and imidazole ligands, analogous to the '3+1 Mn tetramer' of the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II. It is found that DFT/B3LYP predicts structural and electronic properties of oxomanganese complexes in pre-selected spin-electronic states in very good agreement with X-ray and magnetic experimental data, even when applied in conjunction with rather modest basis sets. However, it is conjectured that the energetics of low-lying spin-states is beyond the capabilities of the DFT/B3LYP level, constituting a limitation to mechanistic studies of multinuclear oxomanganese complexes where until now the performance of DFT/B3LYP has raised little concern.