Proton-coupled Electron Transfer Steps Research Articles

Promoting Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis by Coordination Engineering in Cobalt Phosphate.

Understanding the structure-activity correlation is an important prerequisite for the rational design of high-efficiency electrocatalysts at the atomic level. However, the effect of coordination environment on electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remains enigmatic. In this work, the regulation of proton transfer involved in water oxidation by coordination engineering based on Co3(PO4)2 and CoHPO4 is reported. The HPO4 2- anion has intermediate pKa value between Co(II)-H2O and Co(III)-H2O to be served as an appealing proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) induction group. From theoretical calculations, the pH-dependent OER properties, deuterium kinetic isotope effects, operando electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Raman studies, the CoHPO4 catalyst beneficially reduces the energy barrier of proton hopping and modulates the formation energy of high-valent Co species, thereby enhancing OER activity. This work demonstrates a promising strategy that involves tuning the local coordination environment to optimize PCET steps and electrocatalytic activities for electrochemical applications. In addition, the designed system offers a motif to understand the structure-efficiency relationship from those amino-acid residue with proton buffer ability in natural photosynthesis.

Four Generations of Volcano Plots for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction: Beyond Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Steps?

ConspectusDue to its importance for electrolyzers or metal-air batteries for energy conversion or storage, there is huge interest in the development of high-performance materials for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Theoretical investigations have aided the search for active material motifs through the construction of volcano plots for the kinetically sluggish OER, which involves the transfer of four proton-electron pairs to form a single oxygen molecule. The theory-driven volcano approach has gained unprecedented popularity in the catalysis and energy communities, largely due to its simplicity, as adsorption free energies can be used to approximate the electrocatalytic activity by heuristic descriptors.In the last two decades, the binding-energy-based volcano method has witnessed a renaissance with special concepts being developed to incorporate missing factors into the analysis. To this end, this Account summarizes and discusses the different generations of volcano plots for the example of the OER. While first-generation methods relied on the assessment of the thermodynamic information for the OER reaction intermediates by means of scaling relations, the second and third generations developed strategies to include overpotential and kinetic effects into the analysis of activity trends. Finally, the fourth generation of volcano approaches allowed the incorporation of various mechanistic pathways into the volcano methodology, thus paving the path toward data- and mechanistic-driven volcano plots in electrocatalysis.Although the concept of volcano plots has been significantly expanded in recent years, further research activities are discussed by challenging one of the main paradigms of the volcano concept. To date, the evaluation of activity trends relies on the assumption of proton-coupled electron transfer steps (CPET), even though there is experimental evidence of sequential proton-electron transfer (SPET) steps. While the computational assessment of SPET for solid-state electrodes is ambitious, it is strongly suggested to comprehend their importance in energy conversion and storage processes, including the OER. This can be achieved by knowledge transfer from homogeneous to heterogeneous electrocatalysis and by focusing on the material class of single-atom catalysts in which the active center is well defined. The derived concept of how to analyze the importance of SPET for mechanistic pathways in the OER over solid-state electrodes could further shape our understanding of the proton-electron transfer steps at electrified solid/liquid interfaces, which is crucial for further progress toward sustainable energy and climate neutrality.

Promoted selectivity of photocatalytic CO2 reduction to C2H4 via hybrid CuxCoSy possessing dual unsaturated sites

Ethylene production by CO2 reduction is sluggish because the repulsive dipole-dipole interaction and 12 proton-coupled electron-transfer steps consecutively. Amorphous structured photocatalysts possess few grain boundaries and abundant unsaturated sites, accelerating the reaction efficiency from the angle of dynamics and thermodynamics, which still not yet be used in PCR to C2 products currently. Herein, an amorphous CuxCoSy composed of the minority crystalline CuCo2S4 is fabricated to realize an excellent C2H4 selectivity in terms of Relectron (94.9%). Unsaturated Co and S play the key roles in the improved efficiency of C2H4 generation. C-C coupling is achieved via shortening Co-S bonds distance, and *CO-*CO coupling barrier is decreased by more electrons accumulated on unsaturated S. Water is adsorbed on Co adjacent to S and provide protons for *COCO to form *CH2 = C. This work paves a new way for broadening the efficient of C2H4 photocatalytic evolution using amorphous photocatalyst.

(Invited) Crosscutting Materials and Molecular Catalysts in Hybrid Photoelectrodes for Liquid Solar Fuel Production

The Solar Hub entitled the C enter for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels, or CHASE, is advancing the quest for liquid fuels from water, nitrogen, and/or carbon dioxide feedstocks with sunlight as the only energy source. To realize this quest, CHASE utilizes hybrid photoelectrodes based on molecular catalysts integrated with visible light absorbing semiconductors with controlled microenvironments to achieve liquid solar fuel production. These crosscutting materials serve as hybrid photoelectrodes in photoelectrochemical cells. This presentation will focus on recent advances on photocatalysis at hybrid Si interfaces with particular attention to the individual electron transfer and proton coupled electron transfer step(s) relevant to water oxidation and carbon dioxide reduction catalysis. The impact of CHASE findings on solar energy conversion and the quest for liquid solar fuels will be discussed.

Cations Determine the Mechanism and Selectivity of Alkaline Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Pt(111)**

AbstractThe proton‐coupled electron transfer (PCET) mechanism of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a long‐standing enigma in electrocatalysis. Despite decades of research, the factors determining the microscopic mechanism of ORR‐PCET as a function of pH, electrolyte, and electrode potential remain unresolved, even on the prototypical Pt(111) surface. Herein, we integrate advanced experiments, simulations, and theory to uncover the mechanism of the cation effects on alkaline ORR on well‐defined Pt(111). We unveil a dual‐cation effect where cations simultaneously determine i) the active electrode surface by controlling the formation of Pt−O and Pt−OH overlayers and ii) the competition between inner‐ and outer‐sphere PCET steps. The cation‐dependent transition from Pt−O to Pt−OH determines the ORR mechanism, activity, and selectivity. These findings provide direct evidence that the electrolyte affects the ORR mechanism and performance, with important consequences for the practical design of electrochemical systems and computational catalyst screening studies. Our work highlights the importance of complementary insight from experiments and simulations to understand how different components of the electrochemical interface contribute to electrocatalytic processes.

Cations Determine the Mechanism and Selectivity of Alkaline Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Pt(111).

The proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) mechanism of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a long-standing enigma in electrocatalysis. Despite decades of research, the factors determining the microscopic mechanism of ORR-PCET as a function of pH, electrolyte, and electrode potential remain unresolved, even on the prototypical Pt(111) surface. Herein, we integrate advanced experiments, simulations, and theory to uncover the mechanism of the cation effects on alkaline ORR on well-defined Pt(111). We unveil a dual-cation effect where cations simultaneously determine i) the active electrode surface by controlling the formation of Pt-O and Pt-OH overlayers and ii) the competition between inner- and outer-sphere PCET steps. The cation-dependent transition from Pt-O to Pt-OH determines the ORR mechanism, activity, and selectivity. These findings provide direct evidence that the electrolyte affects the ORR mechanism and performance, with important consequences for the practical design of electrochemical systems and computational catalyst screening studies. Our work highlights the importance of complementary insight from experiments and simulations to understand how different components of the electrochemical interface contribute to electrocatalytic processes.

Iridium-Catalyzed Hydrogenation of a Phenoxy Radical to the Phenol: Overcoming Catalyst Deactivation with Visible Light Irradiation.

Piano-stool iridium hydride complexes bearing phenylpyridine ligands are effective precatalysts for promoting the formation of element-hydrogen bonds using H2 as the stoichiometric H-atom source. Irradiation with blue light resulted in a profound enhancement of catalyst turnover for the iridium-catalyzed hydrogenation of the aryloxyl radical 2,4,6-tBu3-C6H2O• to the corresponding phenol. Monitoring the progress of the reaction revealed the formation of an iridium 3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydrobenzofuranyl compound arising from two C-H activation events following the proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) step. Under thermal conditions, this compound was inactive for catalytic aryloxide hydrogenation, representing a deactivation pathway. Irradiation with blue light under H2 released the free heterocycle and regenerated the piano-stool iridium hydride precatalyst, establishing a pathway for catalyst recovery and overall enhanced turnover.

Revealing the role of double-layer microenvironments in pH-dependent oxygen reduction activity over metal-nitrogen-carbon catalysts

A standing puzzle in electrochemistry is that why the metal-nitrogen-carbon catalysts generally exhibit dramatic activity drop for oxygen reduction when traversing from alkaline to acid. Here, taking FeCo-N6-C double-atom catalyst as a model system and combining the ab initio molecular dynamics simulation and in situ surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy, we show that it is the significantly distinct interfacial double-layer structures, rather than the energetics of multiple reaction steps, that cause the pH-dependent oxygen reduction activity on metal-nitrogen-carbon catalysts. Specifically, the greatly disparate charge densities on electrode surfaces render different orientations of interfacial water under alkaline and acid oxygen reduction conditions, thereby affecting the formation of hydrogen bonds between the surface oxygenated intermediates and the interfacial water molecules, eventually controlling the kinetics of the proton-coupled electron transfer steps. The present findings may open new and feasible avenues for the design of advanced metal-nitrogen-carbon catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Correlations between the Electronic Structure and Energetics of the Catalytic Steps in Homogeneous Water Oxidation Catalysis.

The development of an efficient electrocatalyst for the water oxidation reaction is limited by unfavorable scaling relations between catalytic intermediates, resulting in an overpotential. In contrast to heterogeneous catalysts, the electronic structure of homogeneous catalysts can be modified to a great extent due to a tailored ligand design. However, studies utilizing the tunability of organic ligands have rarely been conducted in a systematic manner and, as of yet, have not produced catalytic paths that avoid the aforementioned unfavorable scaling relations. To investigate the influence of electron-donating groups (EDGs) or electron-withdrawing groups (EWGs) on elementary steps in electrochemical water oxidation catalysis, cis-[Ru(bpy)2(H2O)]2+ (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine) was selected as the scaffold that was modified with methyl, methoxy, chloro, and trifluoromethyl groups. This catalyst can undergo several electron transfer (ET), proton transfer (PT), and proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) steps that were all probed experimentally. In this systematic study, it was found that PCET steps are relatively insensitive with respect to the presence of EDGs or EWGs, while the decoupled ET and PT steps are more heavily affected. However, the influence of the substituents decreases with an increasing oxidation state of Ru due to a lack of d-electrons available at the Ru center for π-backbonding to the bipyridine ligand. Therefore, the RuV/VI redox couple appears to be relatively unaffected by the substituent. Nevertheless, the implementation of EWGs can shift all oxidation events to a very narrow potential window. Not only do our findings illustrate how electronic substituents affect the entire potential energy landscape of the catalytic water oxidation reaction, but they also show that the cis-[Ru(bpy)2(H2O)]2+ compounds follow different design rules and scaling relations, as has been reported for every other oxygen evolution catalyst thus far.

Boosting the Proton-coupled Electron Transfer via Fe-P Atomic Pair for Enhanced Electrochemical CO2 Reduction.

Single-atom catalysts exhibit superior CO2 -to-CO catalytic activity, but poor kinetics of proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) steps still limit the overall performance toward the industrial scale. Here, we constructed a Fe-P atom paired catalyst onto nitrogen doped graphitic layer (Fe1 /PNG) to accelerate PCET step. Fe1 /PNG delivers an industrial CO current of 1 A with FECO over 90 % at 2.5 V in a membrane-electrode assembly, overperforming the CO current of Fe1 /NG by more than 300 %. We also decrypted the synergistic effects of the P atom in the Fe-P atom pair using operando techniques and density functional theory, revealing that the P atom provides additional adsorption sites for accelerating water dissociation, boosting the hydrogenation of CO2 , and enhancing the activity of CO2 reduction. This atom-pair catalytic strategy can modulate multiple reactants and intermediates to break through the inherent limitations of single-atom catalysts.

Boosting the Proton‐coupled Electron Transfer via Fe−P Atomic Pair for Enhanced Electrochemical CO2 Reduction

AbstractSingle‐atom catalysts exhibit superior CO2‐to‐CO catalytic activity, but poor kinetics of proton‐coupled electron transfer (PCET) steps still limit the overall performance toward the industrial scale. Here, we constructed a Fe−P atom paired catalyst onto nitrogen doped graphitic layer (Fe1/PNG) to accelerate PCET step. Fe1/PNG delivers an industrial CO current of 1 A with FECO over 90 % at 2.5 V in a membrane‐electrode assembly, overperforming the CO current of Fe1/NG by more than 300 %. We also decrypted the synergistic effects of the P atom in the Fe−P atom pair using operando techniques and density functional theory, revealing that the P atom provides additional adsorption sites for accelerating water dissociation, boosting the hydrogenation of CO2, and enhancing the activity of CO2 reduction. This atom‐pair catalytic strategy can modulate multiple reactants and intermediates to break through the inherent limitations of single‐atom catalysts.

Unveiling the Hidden Energy Profiles of the Oxygen Evolution Reaction via Machine Learning Analyses.

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a crucial electrochemical process for hydrogen production in water electrolysis. However, due to the involvement of multiple proton-coupled electron transfer steps, it is challenging to identify the specific elementary reaction that limits the rate of the OER. Here we employed a machine-learning-based approach to extract the reaction pathway exhaustively from experimental data. Genetic algorithms were applied to search for thermodynamic and kinetic parameters using the current-electrochemical potential relationship of the OER. Interestingly, analysis of the datasets revealed the energy state distributions of reaction intermediates, which likely originated in the interactions among intermediates or the distribution of multiple sites. Through our exhaustive analyses, we successfully uncovered the hidden energy profiles of the OER. This approach can reveal the reaction pathway to activate for efficient hydrogen production, which facilitates the design of catalysts.

How data-driven approaches advance the search for materials relevant to energy conversion and storage

Materials discovery for proton-coupled electron transfer steps is governed by theoretical predictions using the density functional theory approximation. This method underestimates the complexity of the dynamic solid/liquid interface encountered during catalytic processes under bias. In the present perspective article, it is discussed how data-science approaches improve the analysis of the elementary steps at electrified solid/liquid interfaces by using the popular volcano concept as a tool for communication.

Deciphering the effect of amine versus imine ligands of copper(II) complexes in 2-aminophenol oxidation

A series of amine (1–6) and imine (5′,6′) based copper(II) complexes with tridentate (NNO) ligand donors were synthesized and characterized using modern analytical techniques. All the complexes were subjected to 2-aminophenol (OAP) oxidation to form 2-aminophenoxazin-3-one, as a functional analogue of an enzyme, phenoxazinone synthase. In addition, a critical comparison of the reactivity using the amine-based complexes with their respective imine counterparts was achieved in both experimental as well as theoretical studies. For instance, the kinetic measurement revealed that the imine-based copper(II) complexes (kcat, 2.4 × 105–6.2 × 106 h−1) are better than amine-based (kcat, 6.3 × 104–3.9 × 105 h−1) complexes. The complex-substrate adducts [Cu(L3)(OAP)] (7) and [Cu(L3′)(OAP)] (7′) were characterized for both systems by mass spectrometry. Further, the DFT study was performed with amine- (3) and imine- (3′) based copper(II) complexes, to compare their efficacy in the oxidation of OAP. The mechanistic investigations reveal that the key elementary step to determine the reactivity of 3 and 3′ is the proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) step occurring from the intermediates 7/7′. Further, the computed HOMO-LUMO energy gap of 7′ was smaller than 7 by 0.8 eV, which indicates the facile PCET compared to that of 7. Moreover, the coupling of the OAP moiety using imine-complexes (ΔGR.E = −5.8 kcal/mol) was found to be thermodynamically more favorable than amine complexes (ΔGR.E = +3.3 kcal/mol). Overall, the theoretical findings are in good agreement with the experimental results.

Unusual Water Oxidation Mechanism via a Redox-Active Copper Polypyridyl Complex.

To improve Cu-based water oxidation (WO) catalysts, a proper mechanistic understanding of these systems is required. In contrast to other metals, high-oxidation-state metal-oxo species are unlikely intermediates in Cu-catalyzed WO because π donation from the oxo ligand to the Cu center is difficult due to the high number of d electrons of CuII and CuIII. As a consequence, an alternative WO mechanism must take place instead of the typical water nucleophilic attack and the inter- or intramolecular radical-oxo coupling pathways, which were previously proposed for Ru-based catalysts. [CuII(HL)(OTf)2] [HL = Hbbpya = N,N-bis(2,2'-bipyrid-6-yl)amine)] was investigated as a WO catalyst bearing the redox-active HL ligand. The Cu catalyst was found to be active as a WO catalyst at pH 11.5, at which the deprotonated complex [CuII(L-)(H2O)]+ is the predominant species in solution. The overall WO mechanism was found to be initiated by two proton-coupled electron-transfer steps. Kinetically, a first-order dependence in the catalyst, a zeroth-order dependence in the phosphate buffer, a kinetic isotope effect of 1.0, a ΔH⧧ value of 4.49 kcal·mol-1, a ΔS⧧ value of -42.6 cal·mol-1·K-1, and a ΔG⧧ value of 17.2 kcal·mol-1 were found. A computational study supported the formation of a Cu-oxyl intermediate, [CuII(L•)(O•)(H2O)]+. From this intermediate onward, formation of the O-O bond proceeds via a single-electron transfer from an approaching hydroxide ion to the ligand. Throughout the mechanism, the CuII center is proposed to be redox-inactive.

Mechanical Interlocking Enhances the Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction Activity and Selectivity of Molecular Copper Complexes.

Efficient O2 reduction reaction (ORR) for selective H2O generation enables advanced fuel cell technology. Nonprecious metal catalysts are viable and attractive alternatives to state-of-the-art Pt-based materials that are expensive. Cu complexes inspired by Cu-containing O2 reduction enzymes in nature are yet to reach their desired ORR catalytic performance. Here, the concept of mechanical interlocking is introduced to the ligand architecture to enforce dynamic spatial restriction on the Cu coordination site. Interlocked catenane ligands could govern O2 binding mode, promote electron transfer, and facilitate product elimination. Our results show that ligand interlocking as a catenane steers the ORR selectivity to H2O as the major product via the 4e- pathway, rivaling the selectivity of Pt, and boosts the onset potential by 130 mV, the mass activity by 1.8 times, and the turnover frequency by 1.5 fold as compared to the noninterlocked counterpart. Our Cu catenane complex represents one of the first examples to take advantage of mechanical interlocking to afford electrocatalysts with enhanced activity and selectivity. The mechanistic insights gained through this integrated experimental and theoretical study are envisioned to be valuable not just to the area of ORR energy catalysis but also with broad implications on interlocked metal complexes that are of critical importance to the general fields in redox reactions involving proton-coupled electron transfer steps.

Single B-vacancy enriched α1-borophene sheet: an efficient metal-free electrocatalyst for CO2 reduction.

By employing first principles calculations, we have studied the electronic structures of pristine (α1) and different defective (α1-t1, α1-t2) borophene sheets to understand the efficacy of such systems as metal-free electrocatalysts for the CO2 reduction reaction. Among the three studied systems, only α1-t1, the defective borophene sheet created by removal of a 5-coordinated boron atom, can chemisorb and activate a CO2 molecule for its subsequent reduction processes, leading to different C1 chemicals, followed by selective conversion into C2 products by multiple proton coupled electron transfer steps. The computed onset potentials for the C1 chemicals such as CH3OH and CH4 are low enough. On the other hand, in the case of the C2 reduction process, the C-C coupling barrier is only 0.80 eV in the solvent phase which produces CH3CHO and CH3CH2OH with very low onset potential values of -0.21 and -0.24 V, respectively, suppressing the competing hydrogen evolution reaction.

Synergistic effect of diatomic Mo-B site confined in graphene-like C2N enables electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction via novel mechanism.

Structural modulation of the active site with atomic-level precision is of great importance to meet the activity and selectivity challenges that electrocatalysts are commonly facing. In this work, we have designed a metal (M)-nonmetal diatomic site embedded in graphene-like C2N (denoted as Mo-B@C2N), where the electrocatalytic N2 reduction reaction (eNRR) was thoroughly explored using density functional theory combined with the computational hydrogen electrode method. Compared to M-M diatomic sites, the Mo-B site can generate a pronounced synergistic effect that led to eNRR proceeding via a novel quasi-dissociative reaction mechanism that has not been reported relative to the conventional enzymatic, consecutive, distal, and alternating associative mechanism. This newly uncovered mechanism in which N-N bond scission takes place immediately after the first proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) step (i.e., *NH-*N + H+ + e- → *NH2*N) has demonstrated much advantage in the PCET process over the four conventional mechanism in terms of thermodynamic barrier, except that the adsorption of side-on *N2 seemed thermodynamically unfavorable (ΔGads = 0.61eV). Our results have revealed that the activation of the inert N≡N triple bond is dominated by the π*-backdonation mechanism as a consequence of charge transfers from both the B and Mo sites and, unexpectedly, from the substrate C2N itself as well. Moreover, the hybrid Mo-B diatomic site demonstrated superior performance over either the Mo-Mo or B-B site for driving eNRR. Our study could provide insight into the delicate relationships among atomic site, substrate, and electrocatalytic performance.

Strategies to Enhance the Rate of Proton‐Coupled Electron Transfer Reactions in Dye‐Water Oxidation Catalyst Complexes

AbstractA thorough understanding of the proton‐coupled electron transfer (PCET) steps that are involved in photocatalytic water oxidation is of crucial importance in order to increase the efficiency of dye‐sensitized photoelectrochemical cells (DS‐PEC) for solar to fuel conversion. This work provides a computational investigation of the ground and excited state potential energy surfaces of PCET reactions in two supramolecular dye‐catalyst complexes for photocatalytic water splitting. The intrinsic reaction coordinate path is computed for the rate limiting PCET step in the catalytic cycle for both complexes. By using time‐dependent density functional theory calculations, we show that the ground and excited state potential energy surfaces have a (near) degeneracy in the region of the PCET transition state. We discuss two possible strategies that take advantage of this feature to accelerate the PCET reaction: (i) through optimizing the conditions for vibronic coupling by chemical design and synthesis or (ii) through populating the product state with appropriately tuned laser pulses.

Use of a PCET Mediator Enables a Ni-HER Electrocatalyst to Act as a Hydride Delivery Agent.

The generation of metal hydride intermediates during reductive electrocatalysis in the presence of acid most commonly leads to the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Redirecting the reactivity profile of such hydride intermediates toward the reduction of unsaturated substrates is an exciting opportunity in catalysis but presents a challenge in terms of catalyst selectivity. In this study, we demonstrate that a prototypical phosphine-supported Ni-HER catalyst can be repurposed toward the electrocatalytic reduction of a model substrate, methyl phenylpropiolate, via hydride transfer from a NiII-H when interfaced with a metallocene-derived proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) mediator. Key to success is generation of the NiII-H at a potential pinned to that of the PCET mediator which is appreciably anodic of the onset of HER. Electrochemical, spectroscopic, and theoretical data point to a working mechanism where a PCET step from the metallocene-derived mediator to NiII generates NiIII-H and is rate-determining; the latter NiIII-H is then readily reduced to a NiII-H, which is competent for substrate reduction. Additional studies show that this tandem PCET-mediated hydride generation can afford high stereoselectivity (e.g., >20:1 Z/E using a phosphine-cobalt precatalyst with ethyl 2-heptynoate) and can also be used for the reduction of α,β-unsaturated ketones.