One of the major challenges in developing sustainable energy storage systems is to discover robust oxygen evolving catalysts (OECs) that can efficiently oxidize water and produce oxygen, electrons and protons under highly oxidizing conditions. Significant progress has been made in the fundamental mechanistic understanding of the O-O bond formation step using molecular bioinspired Ru(II) OECs. However, more efforts are warranted to help understand the surface behavior of these complexes when interfaced onto conductive or semiconductive substrates in light-driven water splitting devices. In this work, the surface behavior of cationic ruthenium based complexes [Ru(tpy)(bpy)(H2O)]2+ (tpy = 2,2’: 6’, 2’’-terpyridine, bpy = 2,2’-bipyridine), [Ru(bpy)3]2+ and neutral complex Ru(bda)(pic)2 (bda = 2,2’- bipyridine-6,6’-dicarboxylic acid, pic = 4-picoline) will be compared upon loading into a grafted poly(acrylic acid) conductive electrode. Electrochemical properties will be studied by cyclic voltammetry to shed light on the comparative stability and catalysis on the surface.

Towards better understanding of the surface properties of ruthenium molecular oxygen evolution catalysts

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ACS Fall 2022

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