O-O bond formation mechanisms during the oxygen evolution reaction over synthetic molecular catalysts

Water oxidation is one of the most important reactions in natural and artificial energy conversion schemes.In nature,solar energy is converted to chemical energy via water oxidation at the oxygen-evolving center of photosystem II to generate dioxygen,protons,and electrons.In artificial energy schemes,water oxidation is one of the half reactions of water splitting,which is an appealing strategy for energy conversion via photocatalytic,electrocatalytic,or photoelectrocatalytic processes.Because it is thermodynamically unfavorable and kinetically slow,water oxidation is the bottleneck for achieving large-scale water splitting.Thus,developing highly efficient water oxidation catalysts has attracted the interests of researchers in the past decades.The formation of O-O bonds is typically the rate-determining step of the water oxidation catalytic cycle.Therefore,better understanding this key step is critical for the rational design of more efficient catalysts.This review focuses on elucidating the evolution of metal-oxygen species during transition metal-catalyzed water oxidation,and more importantly,on discussing the feasible O-O bond formation mechanisms during the oxygen evolution reaction over synthetic molecular catalysts.

Tuning the O–O bond formation pathways of molecular water oxidation catalysts on electrode surfaces via second coordination sphere engineering

A molecular [Ru(bda)]-type(bda = 2,2’-bipyridine-6,6’-dicarboxylate) water oxidation catalyst with 4-vinylpyridine as the axial ligand(Complex 1) was immobilized or co-immobilized with 1-(trifluoromethyl)-4-vinylbenzene(3 F) or styrene(St) blocking units on the surface of glassy carbon(GC) electrodes by electrochemical polymerization, in order to prepare the corresponding poly-1@GC, poly-1+P3 F@GC, and poly-1+PSt@GC functional electrodes. Kinetic measurements of the electrode surface reaction revealed that [Ru(bda)] triggers the O–O bond formation via(1) the radical coupling interaction between the two metallo-oxyl radicals(I2 M) in the homo-coupling polymer(poly-1), and(2) the water nucleophilic attack(WNA) pathway in poly-1+P3 F and poly-1+PSt copolymers. The comparison of the three electrodes revealed that the second coordination sphere of the water oxidation catalysts plays vital roles in stabilizing their reaction intermediates, tuning the O–O bond formation pathways and improving the water oxidation reaction kinetics without changing the first coordination structures.