DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Pendant Hydrogen-Bond Donors in Cobalt Catalysts Independently Enhance CO2 Reduction

Journal Article · · ACS Central Science
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, United States
  2. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

The bioinspired incorporation of pendant proton donors into transition metal catalysts is a promising strategy for converting environmentally deleterious CO2 to higher energy products. However, the mechanism of proton transfer in these systems is poorly understood. Herein, we present a series of cobalt complexes with varying pendant secondary and tertiary amines in the ligand framework with the aim of disentangling the roles of the first and second coordination spheres in CO2 reduction catalysis. Electrochemical and kinetic studies indicate that the rate of catalysis shows a first-order dependence on acid, CO2, and the number of pendant secondary amines, respectively. Density functional theory studies explain the experimentally observed trends and indicate that pendant secondary amines do not directly transfer protons to CO2, but instead bind acid molecules from solution. Taken together, these results suggest a mechanism in which noncooperative pendant amines facilitate a hydrogen-bonding network that enables direct proton transfer from acid to the activated CO2 substrate.

Research Organization:
California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0004993
OSTI ID:
1498679
Journal Information:
ACS Central Science, Journal Name: ACS Central Science Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 4; ISSN 2374-7943
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (46)

Determining atom-centered monopoles from molecular electrostatic potentials. The need for high sampling density in formamide conformational analysis journal April 1990
Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide mediated by molecular catalysts journal March 1989
Properties of monovalent nickel complexes with tetraaza-macrocyclic ligands in aqueous solutions journal December 1995
Effects of ligand structure on the adsorption of nickel tetraazamacrocyclic complexes and electrocatalytic CO2 reduction journal March 1998
Acid dissociation of 2,2′-dipyridylamine in non-aqueous medium when chelated to some Ru(II)N4 cores journal January 2008
Current Issues in Molecular Catalysis Illustrated by Iron Porphyrins as Catalysts of the CO 2 -to-CO Electrochemical Conversion journal November 2015
Design of a Catalytic Active Site for Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction with Mn(I)-Tricarbonyl Species journal May 2015
Dissection of Electronic Substituent Effects in Multielectron–Multistep Molecular Catalysis. Electrochemical CO 2 -to-CO Conversion Catalyzed by Iron Porphyrins journal December 2016
Breaking the Correlation between Energy Costs and Kinetic Barriers in Hydrogen Evolution via a Cobalt Pyridine-Diimine-Dioxime Catalyst journal August 2016
Electrons, Photons, Protons and Earth-Abundant Metal Complexes for Molecular Catalysis of CO 2 Reduction journal November 2016
Equilibrium acidities in dimethyl sulfoxide solution journal December 1988
Development of Molecular Electrocatalysts for CO2 Reduction and H2 Production/Oxidation journal December 2009
Molecular Approaches to the Photocatalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide for Solar Fuels journal December 2009
Molecular Catalysis of Electrochemical Reactions. Mechanistic Aspects journal July 2008
Frontiers, Opportunities, and Challenges in Biochemical and Chemical Catalysis of CO 2 Fixation journal June 2013
Hydrogenases journal March 2014
Nickel-Containing Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase/Acetyl-CoA Synthase, journal January 1996
A Simple, Exact Density-Functional-Theory Embedding Scheme journal July 2012
Carbon dioxide activation by cobalt macrocycles: evidence of hydrogen bonding between bound CO2 and the macrocycle in solution journal June 1993
Homogeneous CO 2 Reduction by Ni(cyclam) at a Glassy Carbon Electrode journal March 2012
Development of Molecular Electrocatalysts for Energy Storage journal February 2014
Carbon dioxide activation by cobalt(I) macrocycles: factors affecting carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide binding journal January 1991
Carbon dioxide activation: thermodynamics of carbon dioxide binding and the involvement of two cobalt centers in the reduction of carbon dioxide by a cobalt(I) macrocycle journal July 1988
Electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide by nickel cyclam2+ in water: study of the factors affecting the efficiency and the selectivity of the process journal November 1986
Electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide by using macrocycles of nickel and cobalt journal September 1980
Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Formate by [Ni(P R 2 N R′ 2 ) 2 (CH 3 CN)] 2+ Complexes journal August 2011
Pendant Acid–Base Groups in Molecular Catalysts: H-Bond Promoters or Proton Relays? Mechanisms of the Conversion of CO 2 to CO by Electrogenerated Iron(0)Porphyrins Bearing Prepositioned Phenol Functionalities journal August 2014
Direct XANES Evidence for Charge Transfer in Co−CO 2 Complexes journal May 1997
Proton-Assisted Reduction of CO 2 by Cobalt Aminopyridine Macrocycles journal April 2016
Through-Space Charge Interaction Substituent Effects in Molecular Catalysis Leading to the Design of the Most Efficient Catalyst of CO 2 -to-CO Electrochemical Conversion journal December 2016
Turning on the Protonation-First Pathway for Electrocatalytic CO 2 Reduction by Manganese Bipyridyl Tricarbonyl Complexes journal February 2017
Molecular Cobalt Complexes with Pendant Amines for Selective Electrocatalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Formic Acid journal March 2017
Identifying and Breaking Scaling Relations in Molecular Catalysis of Electrochemical Reactions journal August 2017
Synthesis of (NH) m (NMe) 4− m -Bridged Calix[4]pyridines and the Effect of NH Bridge on Structure and Properties journal October 2009
Biomimetic assembly and activation of [FeFe]-hydrogenases journal June 2013
The roles of the first and second coordination spheres in the design of molecular catalysts for H 2 production and oxidation journal January 2009
Electrocatalytic and homogeneous approaches to conversion of CO 2 to liquid fuels journal January 2009
Thermodynamics and kinetics of CO2, CO, and H+ binding to the metal centre of CO2reductioncatalysts journal January 2012
Catalysis of the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide journal January 2013
Formate oxidation via β-deprotonation in [Ni(PR2NR′2)2(CH3CN)]2+ complexes journal January 2012
Nickel(ii) macrocycles: highly efficient electrocatalysts for the selective reduction of CO2 to CO journal January 2012
Nickel(II)-cyclam: an extremely selective electrocatalyst for reduction of CO2 in water journal January 1984
Ultraefficient homogeneous catalyst for the CO 2 -to-CO electrochemical conversion journal October 2014
Efficient and selective molecular catalyst for the CO 2 -to-CO electrochemical conversion in water journal May 2015
Carbon Dioxide Activation at the Ni,Fe-Cluster of Anaerobic Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase journal November 2007
A Local Proton Source Enhances CO 2 Electroreduction to CO by a Molecular Fe Catalyst journal October 2012

Cited By (25)

Electro- and Solar-Driven Fuel Synthesis with First Row Transition Metal Complexes journal October 2018
For CO2 Reduction, Hydrogen-Bond Donors Do the Trick journal March 2018
ACS Central Science Virtual Issue on Bioinspired Catalysis text January 2019
Recent Trends, Benchmarking, and Challenges of Electrochemical Reduction of CO 2 by Molecular Catalysts journal May 2019
Second‐Sphere Biomimetic Multipoint Hydrogen‐Bonding Patterns to Boost CO 2 Reduction of Iron Porphyrins journal February 2019
Proton Relays in Molecular Catalysis of Electrochemical Reactions: Origin and Limitations of the Boosting Effect journal February 2019
Second-Sphere Biomimetic Multipoint Hydrogen-Bonding Patterns to Boost CO 2 Reduction of Iron Porphyrins journal February 2019
Electrocatalytic CO 2 Reduction with a Half‐Sandwich Cobalt Catalyst: Selectivity towards CO journal February 2020
MOF/polymer composite synthesized using a double solvent method offers enhanced water and CO 2 adsorption properties journal January 2018
Metallo-supramolecular assembly of protic pincer-type complexes: encapsulation of dinitrogen and carbon disulfide into a multiproton-responsive diruthenium cage journal January 2019
A 2,2′-bipyridine-containing covalent organic framework bearing rhenium( i ) tricarbonyl moieties for CO 2 reduction journal January 2018
Mechanisms of catalytic reduction of CO 2 with heme and nonheme metal complexes journal January 2018
Reduction of CO 2 by a masked two-coordinate cobalt( i ) complex and characterization of a proposed oxodicobalt( ii ) intermediate journal January 2019
A rational design of manganese electrocatalysts for Lewis acid-assisted carbon dioxide reduction journal January 2019
Evaluation of attractive interactions in the second coordination sphere of iron complexes containing pendant amines journal January 2019
Elucidating the origins of enhanced CO 2 reduction in manganese electrocatalysts bearing pendant hydrogen-bond donors journal January 2019
Rhenium bipyridine catalysts with hydrogen bonding pendant amines for CO 2 reduction journal January 2019
The good, the neutral, and the positive: buffer identity impacts CO 2 reduction activity by nickel( ii ) cyclam journal January 2019
Metal vs. ligand protonation and the alleged proton-shuttling role of the azadithiolate ligand in catalytic H 2 formation with FeFe hydrogenase model complexes journal January 2019
Structural features of molecular electrocatalysts in multi-electron redox processes for renewable energy – recent advances journal January 2019
From non-innocent to guilty: on the role of redox-active ligands in the electro-assisted reduction of CO 2 mediated by a cobalt( ii )-polypyridyl complex journal January 2020
Even-handed subsystem selection in projection-based embedding journal October 2018
Analytical gradients for projection-based wavefunction-in-DFT embedding journal August 2019
Even-handed subsystem selection in projection-based embedding text January 2018
Analytical Gradients for Projection-Based Wavefunction-in-DFT Embedding text January 2019