Evaluation of the Role of Water in the H2 Bond Formation by Ni(II)-based Electrocatalysts
We investigate the role of water in the H-H bond formation by a family of nickel molecular catalysts that exhibit high rates for H2 production in acetonitrile solvent. A key feature leading to the high reactivity is the Lewis acidity of the Ni(II) center and pendant amines in the diphosphine ligand that function as Lewis bases, facilitating H-H bond formation or cleavage. Significant increases in the rate of H2 production have been reported in the presence of added water. Our calculations show that molecular water can displace an acetonitrile solvent molecule in the first solvation shell of the metal. One or two water molecules can also participate in shuttling a proton that can combine with a metal hydride to form the H-H bond. However the participation of the water molecules does not lower the barrier to H-H bond formation. Thus these calculations suggest that the rate increase due to water in these electrocatalysts is not associated with the elementary step of H-H bond formation or cleavage, but rather with the proton delivery steps. We attribute the higher barrier in the H-H bond formation in the presence of water to a decrease in direct interaction between the protic and hydridic hydrogen atoms forced by the water molecules. This research was supported as part of the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Computational resources were provided at W. R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Jaguar supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1094908
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-95935; 44681; KC0307010
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 9(8):3505-3514, Journal Name: Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 9(8):3505-3514
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Theoretical Investigations on the Formation and Dehydrogenation Reaction Pathways of H(NH2BH2)nH (n=1-4) Oligomers: Importance of Dihydrogen Interactions (DHI)
Development of Molecular Electrocatalysts for CO2 Reduction and H2 Production/Oxidation