Thermodynamic Properties of Hydrogen-Producing Cobaloxime Catalysts: A Density Functional Theory Analysis.

Abstract

Density functional theory calculations were carried out to study the electrochemical properties including reduction potentials, pKa values, and thermodynamic hydricities of three prototypical cobaloxime complexes, Co(dmgBF2)2 (dmgBF2 = difluoroboryl-dimethylglyoxime), Co(dmgH)2 (dmgH = dimethylglyoxime), and Co(dmgH)2(py)(Cl) (py = pyridine) in the acetonitrile (AN)–water solvent mixture. The electrochemical properties of Co(dmgBF2)2 in pure AN and pure water were also considered for comparison to reveal the key roles of the solvent on the catalytic reaction. In agreement with previous studies, hydrogen production pathways starting from reduction of the resting state of CoII and involving formation of the CoIIIH and CoIIH intermediates are the favorable ones for both bimetallic and monometallic pathways. However, we found that in pure AN, both the CoIIIH and CoIIH intermediates can react with a proton to produce H2. In the presence of water in the solvent, the reduction of CoIIIH to CoIIH is necessary for the reaction with a proton to occur to form H2. This suggests that it is possible to design catalytic systems by suitably tuning the composition of the AN–water mixture. We also identified the key role of axial coordination of the solvent molecules in affecting the catalytic reaction, which allows further catalyst design strategy. The highest hydride donor ability of Co(dmgH)2(py)(Cl) indicates that this complex displays the best catalytic hydrogen-producing performance among the three cobaloximes studied in this work.