Stable and efficient homogeneous water oxidation catalysts have been of great interest to an artificial photosynthetic scheme due to the high overpotential and slow kinetics of the water oxidation reaction. Here we report the synthesis and characterization of a new Zr-based metal-organic-framework (MOF) with [Ru(tpy)(BPDB)OH2]2+ (tpy = 2,2′:6′,2′′-terpyridine, BPDB = 2,2′-bipyridine-5,5’-dibenzoic acid) as a new, stable heterogeneous catalyst. The advantages of these materials include high chemical and thermal stabilities, and large accessible pore space. The MOF was grown on a conductive fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate to study its catalytic efficiency for electrochemical water oxidation. In addition, the new framework was also grown on a BiVO4 surface to drive photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation with BiVO4 acting as a photoanode. This work presents a new heterogeneous catalytic system with high density of active sites, and explores the use of MOFs for PEC water splitting.

Development of novel catalytically active metal organic frameworks for water splitting

254th National Meeting (2017)

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