skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: How to Chemically Tailor Metal-Porphyrin-Like Active Sites on Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene for Minimal Overpotential in the Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution and Oxygen Reduction Reactions

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/jp507638v· OSTI ID:1511413
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

Density functional theory calculations are used to study the energetics of the electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) of water and the reverse oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on metal-porphyrin-like centers incorporated into graphene layers or single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The objective is to explore the reductions in computational thermodynamic overpotential that can be achieved relative to catalysis on metal oxide surfaces (OER) or platinum (ORR) by varying the metal center and axial ligand. This permits a degree of simultaneous control over the free energy gap between the lowest energy OH and highest energy OOH intermediates, and the position of the oxo (O) intermediate in this gap. Optimal choice of metal toward the right of the first transition series largely controls the gap. Given a suitable metal such as Fe, the overpotential for OER can be tuned over a range greater than 0.35 V by choice of the axial ligand. For OER occurring within the SWCNTs, a minimum predicted overpotential of 0.35 V is found, very close to the gap-imposed limit of 0.30 V for this system. Similarly, the overpotential of ORR can be tuned over a range more than 0.30 V by selection of the axial ligand. While the calculations necessarily have limited accuracy, the principles should provide a transferable path toward overpotential optimization for the OER and ORR.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1511413
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Vol. 118, Issue 51; ISSN 1932-7447
Publisher:
American Chemical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (84)

Solar Energy Supply and Storage for the Legacy and Nonlegacy Worlds journal November 2010
Solar Water Splitting Cells journal November 2010
Benchmarking Heterogeneous Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction journal October 2013
Materials for fuel-cell technologies journal November 2001
Just a Dream—or Future Reality? journal April 2009
Activity benchmarks and requirements for Pt, Pt-alloy, and non-Pt oxygen reduction catalysts for PEMFCs journal March 2005
Oxygen Evolution by Oxidation of Water with Manganese Porphyrin Dimers journal September 1994
Nucleophilic Attack of Hydroxide on a Mn V Oxo Complex: A Model of the O−O Bond Formation in the Oxygen Evolving Complex of Photosystem II journal July 2009
Electocatalytic Water Oxidation by Cobalt(III) Hangman β-Octafluoro Corroles journal June 2011
Cobalt porphyrins as homogeneous catalysts for water oxidation journal January 2013
Efficient water oxidation catalyzed by homogeneous cationic cobalt porphyrins with critical roles for the buffer base journal September 2013
Molecular Electrocatalysis for Oxygen Reduction by Cobalt Porphyrins Adsorbed at Liquid/Liquid Interfaces journal February 2010
Distant protonated pyridine groups in water-soluble iron porphyrin electrocatalysts promote selective oxygen reduction to water journal January 2012
Highly Efficient Oxidation of Water by a Molecular Catalyst Immobilized on Carbon Nanotubes journal October 2011
Dendron-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes incorporating polyoxometalates for water-splitting catalysis journal May 2011
Tailored Functionalization of Carbon Nanotubes for Electrocatalytic Water Splitting and Sustainable Energy Applications journal July 2011
Efficient water oxidation at carbon nanotube–polyoxometalate electrocatalytic interfaces journal August 2010
Catalytic activity of cobalt and iron phthalocyanines or porphyrins supported on different carbon nanotubes towards oxygen reduction reaction journal November 2011
Oxygen reduction on graphene-supported MN4 macrocycles in alkaline media journal August 2013
Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Glucose by Rhodium Porphyrin-Functionalized MWCNT Electrodes: Application to a Fully Molecular Catalyst-Based Glucose/O 2 Fuel Cell journal August 2012
Oxygen Reduction Catalysts for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells from the Pyrolysis of Iron Acetate Adsorbed on Various Carbon Supports journal February 2003
Molecular Oxygen Reduction in PEM Fuel Cell Conditions:  ToF-SIMS Analysis of Co-Based Electrocatalysts journal September 2005
Molecular Oxygen Reduction in PEM Fuel Cells:  Evidence for the Simultaneous Presence of Two Active Sites in Fe-Based Catalysts journal August 2002
Iron-Based Catalysts with Improved Oxygen Reduction Activity in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells journal April 2009
Aligned carbon nanotubes with built-in FeN 4 active sites for electrocatalytic reduction of oxygen journal January 2008
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Self‐consistent molecular orbital methods. XXIII. A polarization‐type basis set for second‐row elements journal October 1982
Self—Consistent Molecular Orbital Methods. XII. Further Extensions of Gaussian—Type Basis Sets for Use in Molecular Orbital Studies of Organic Molecules journal March 1972
Ab initio effective core potentials for molecular calculations. Potentials for K to Au including the outermost core orbitals journal January 1985
A set of f-polarization functions for pseudo-potential basis sets of the transition metals ScCu, YAg and LaAu journal June 1993
Self‐consistent molecular orbital methods. XX. A basis set for correlated wave functions journal January 1980
Efficient diffuse function-augmented basis sets for anion calculations. III. The 3-21+G basis set for first-row elements, Li-F journal October 1983
Importance of Correlation in Determining Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Activity on Cobalt Oxides journal September 2012
Oxygen Reduction Activity on Perovskite Oxide Surfaces: A Comparative First-Principles Study of LaMnO 3 , LaFeO 3 , and LaCrO 3 journal January 2013
Development of the Colle-Salvetti correlation-energy formula into a functional of the electron density journal January 1988
Density‐functional thermochemistry. III. The role of exact exchange journal April 1993
Density-functional exchange-energy approximation with correct asymptotic behavior journal September 1988
Advances in methods and algorithms in a modern quantum chemistry program package journal January 2006
Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set journal July 1996
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
Ab initiomolecular dynamics for liquid metals journal January 1993
Ab initio molecular-dynamics simulation of the liquid-metal–amorphous-semiconductor transition in germanium journal May 1994
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method journal January 1999
Electrolysis of water on oxide surfaces journal September 2007
Oxygen reduction and evolution at single-metal active sites: Comparison between functionalized graphitic materials and protoporphyrins journal January 2013
Density functional studies of functionalized graphitic materials with late transition metals for oxygen reduction reactions journal January 2011
Semiempirical GGA-type density functional constructed with a long-range dispersion correction journal January 2006
Electrolysis of water on (oxidized) metal surfaces journal December 2005
The oxygen reduction reaction mechanism on Pt(111) from density functional theory calculations journal November 2010
First-Principles Analysis of the Initial Electroreduction Steps of Oxygen over Pt(111) journal January 2009
Electrocatalytic oxygen reduction kinetics on Fe-center of nitrogen-doped graphene journal January 2014
Cover Picture: Recoding the Genetic Code with Selenocysteine (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1/2014) journal December 2013
Universality in Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis on Oxide Surfaces journal March 2011
Origin of the Overpotential for Oxygen Reduction at a Fuel-Cell Cathode journal November 2004
Theoretical Investigation of the Activity of Cobalt Oxides for the Electrochemical Oxidation of Water journal August 2013
Thermodynamic theory of multi-electron transfer reactions: Implications for electrocatalysis journal September 2011
Number of outer electrons as descriptor for adsorption processes on transition metals and their oxides journal January 2013
Modeling the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on Metal Oxides: The Infuence of Unrestricted DFT Calculations journal February 2014
Redox transitions of chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt and nickel protoporphyrins in aqueous solution journal January 2008
Analysis of Porphyrines as Catalysts for Electrochemical Reduction of O 2 and Oxidation of H 2 O journal January 2014
Revisiting the Polyoxometalate-Based Late-Transition-Metal-Oxo Complexes: The “Oxo Wall” Stands journal June 2012
Evidence for a terminal Pt(iv)-oxo complex exhibiting diverse reactivity journal October 2008
High-Valent Iron(IV)–Oxo Complexes of Heme and Non-Heme Ligands in Oxygenation Reactions journal July 2007
A Pronounced Axial Ligand Effect on the Reactivity of Oxoiron(IV) Porphyrin Cation Radicals journal April 1994
Oxidative Aliphatic C-H Fluorination with Fluoride Ion Catalyzed by a Manganese Porphyrin journal September 2012
Selectivity control by axial ligand modification in manganese porphyrin-catalyzed oxidations journal October 1988
Mechanistic insights into iron porphyrin-catalyzed olefin epoxidation by hydrogen peroxide: Factors controlling activity and selectivity journal September 2007
Springloaded porphyrin NHC hybrid rhodium(iii) complexes: carbene dissociation and oxidation catalysis journal January 2014
N-Heterocyclic carbene bonding to cobalt porphyrin complexes journal January 2012
Primary and Secondary Phosphine Complexes of Iron Porphyrins and Ruthenium Phthalocyanine: Synthesis, Structure, and P−H Bond Functionalization journal September 2008
Phosphines as structural and functional probes of hemoproteins journal October 1997
Tertiary phosphine complexes of iron porphyrins: synthesis, molecular stereochemistry, and crystal structure of bis(dimethylphenylphosphine)-(meso-5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrinato)iron(II) journal January 1988
Universality in Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysis on Metal Surfaces journal July 2012
Catalytic pathways for the electroreduction of oxygen by iron tetrakis(4-N-methylpyridyl)porphyrin or iron tetraphenylporphyrin adsorbed on edge plane pyrolytic graphite electrodes journal October 1990
Osmotic water transport through carbon nanotube membranes journal July 2003
Water conduction through the hydrophobic channel of a carbon nanotube journal November 2001
Fast Mass Transport Through Sub-2-Nanometer Carbon Nanotubes journal May 2006
Rapid Transport of Gases in Carbon Nanotubes journal October 2002
Proton Transport through Water-Filled Carbon Nanotubes journal March 2003
Nature of proton transport in a water-filled carbon nanotube and in liquid water journal January 2013
Origin of Giant Ionic Currents in Carbon Nanotube Channels journal August 2011
An Oxocobalt(IV) Complex Stabilized by Lewis Acid Interactions with Scandium(III) Ions journal December 2010
Spectroscopic Capture and Reactivity of a Low-Spin Cobalt(IV)-Oxo Complex Stabilized by Binding Redox-Inactive Metal Ions journal July 2014