Stable iridium dinuclear heterogeneous catalysts supported on metal-oxide substrate for solar water oxidation

Journal Article · Sun Mar 04 23:00:00 EST 2018 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1722137115· OSTI ID:1423731

Zhao, Yanyan ^[1]; Yang, Ke R. ^[2]; Wang, Zechao ^[3]; Yan, Xingxu ^[4]; Cao, Sufeng ^[5]; Ye, Yifan ^[6]; Dong, Qi ^[1]; Zhang, Xizi ^[1]; Thorne, James E. ^[1]; Jin, Lei ^[7]; Materna, Kelly L. ^[2]; Trimpalis, Antonios ^[5]; Bai, Hongye ^[1]; Fakra, Sirine C. ^[6]; Zhong, Xiaoyan ^[8]; Wang, Peng ^[9]; Pan, Xiaoqing ^[10]; Guo, Jinghua ^[6]; Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Maria ^[5]; Brudvig, Gary W. ^[2] ; Batista, Victor S. ^[2]; Wang, Dunwei ^[1]

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1. Department of Chemistry, Merkert Chemistry Center, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467,
2. Department of Chemistry, Yale Energy Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520,
3. Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany,, National Center for Electron Microscopy in Beijing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China,
4. National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 210093 Nanjing, China,, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, 210093 Nanjing, China,, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697,
5. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155,
6. Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,
7. Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany,
8. National Center for Electron Microscopy in Beijing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China,
9. National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 210093 Nanjing, China,, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, 210093 Nanjing, China,
10. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697,, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697

Significance

While research on single-atom catalysts (SACs) is arguably mature, rare work has been done on atomically dispersed catalyst featuring two atoms. We synthesized Ir dinuclear heterogeneous catalyst in a facile photochemical way. It exhibits outstanding stability and high activity toward water oxidation. The significance of this work can also be appreciated from the catalysis perspective. A grand challenge in heterogeneous catalysis is how to understand the detailed mechanisms at the molecular level, because the most active heterogeneous catalysts are often poorly defined in their atomic structures. Our finding is built upon recent advances aimed at studying SACs but takes a crucial step forward. It provides a material platform to study reactions that would require more than one active site.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0001059
• OSTI ID: 1423731
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1506300
• Journal Information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 115; ISSN 0027-8424
• Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English