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

Title: Chasing the Achilles’ Heel in Hybrid Systems of Diruthenium Water Oxidation Catalysts Anchored on Indium Tin Oxide: The Stability of the Anchor

Journal Article · · ACS Catalysis

The development of hybrid devices for photo-driven water oxidation with dinuclear molecular ruthenium catalysts on solid supports aims both at high efficiencies of the catalyst and at high stability of the linking to the surface. We herein report a systematic study regarding the stability of catalysts anchored on an indium tin oxide (ITO) support via different acid functional groups at the ligand backbone: viz., a single carboxylate anchor, two carboxylate anchors, and a phosphonate anchor. The integrity of the hybrid electrodes ITO|mesoITO|catalyst was evaluated under acidic aqueous conditions as a function of the applied electric potential below and above the onset of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) experiments allowed us to distinguish between the water oxidation and the desorption processes. X-ray photoemission (XPS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) after electrochemical treatment showed high chemical stability of the catalyst core structure but pronounced dependence of the hybrid stability on the oxidation state of the ruthenium center. A combination of these different spectroscopic techniques shed light on the mechanisms underlying catalyst desorption. Specifically, catalysts equipped with carboxylate anchors are found to continuously desorb already at low applied potentials below the OER onset, while for the more rugged phosphonate-based hybrid oxidative P–C(aryl) bond cleavage is proposed to occur, but only after reaching the high-valent RuVRuIV state. These findings reveal specific challenges for anchoring strategies in molecular water oxidation catalysis.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI ID:
1393664
Journal Information:
ACS Catalysis, Vol. 7, Issue 9; ISSN 2155-5435
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
ENGLISH
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 14 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (69)

Molecular artificial photosynthesis journal January 2014
Photoelectrochemical cells journal November 2001
Powering the future of molecular artificial photosynthesis with light-harvesting metallosupramolecular dye assemblies journal January 2013
Solar Fuels via Artificial Photosynthesis journal December 2009
Water-Splitting Catalysis and Solar Fuel Devices: Artificial Leaves on the Move journal August 2013
Electrochemical Synthesis of Photoelectrodes and Catalysts for Use in Solar Water Splitting journal August 2015
Light-driven water oxidation for solar fuels journal November 2012
Renewable fuels from concentrated solar power: towards practical artificial photosynthesis journal January 2015
A monolithically integrated, intrinsically safe, 10% efficient, solar-driven water-splitting system based on active, stable earth-abundant electrocatalysts in conjunction with tandem III–V light absorbers protected by amorphous TiO 2 films journal January 2015
Powering the planet: Chemical challenges in solar energy utilization journal October 2006
Wireless Solar Water Splitting Using Silicon-Based Semiconductors and Earth-Abundant Catalysts journal September 2011
A Self-Healing Oxygen-Evolving Catalyst journal March 2009
Making Oxygen with Ruthenium Complexes journal December 2009
Molecular ruthenium water oxidation catalysts carrying non-innocent ligands: mechanistic insight through structure–activity relationships and quantum chemical calculations journal January 2016
Efficient Light-Driven Water Oxidation Catalysis by Dinuclear Ruthenium Complexes journal October 2015
New Powerful and Oxidatively Rugged Dinuclear Ru Water Oxidation Catalyst: Control of Mechanistic Pathways by Tailored Ligand Design journal December 2013
Oxygen−Oxygen Bond Formation by the Ru-Hbpp Water Oxidation Catalyst Occurs Solely via an Intramolecular Reaction Pathway journal March 2009
Manipulating the Rate-Limiting Step in Water Oxidation Catalysis by Ruthenium Bipyridine–Dicarboxylate Complexes journal November 2016
Insights into Ru-Based Molecular Water Oxidation Catalysts: Electronic and Noncovalent-Interaction Effects on Their Catalytic Activities journal June 2013
Synthesis and study of mononuclear ruthenium(II) complexes of sterically hindering diimine chelates. Implications for the catalytic oxidation of water to molecular oxygen journal January 1986
A New Ru Complex Capable of Catalytically Oxidizing Water to Molecular Dioxygen journal June 2004
A New Family of Ru Complexes for Water Oxidation journal September 2005
Highly Efficient Binuclear Ruthenium Catalyst for Water Oxidation journal February 2015
A molecular ruthenium catalyst with water-oxidation activity comparable to that of photosystem II journal March 2012
Electrochemical Oxidation of Water by an Adsorbed μ-Oxo-Bridged Ru Complex journal February 2007
Catalytic and Surface-Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation by Redox Mediator-Catalyst Assemblies journal November 2009
Single-Site, Catalytic Water Oxidation on Oxide Surfaces
  • Chen, Zuofeng; Concepcion, Javier J.; Jurss, Jonah W.
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 131, Issue 43, p. 15580-15581 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja906391w
journal November 2009
Ru‐Hbpp‐Based Water‐Oxidation Catalysts Anchored on Conducting Solid Supports journal July 2008
Immobilization of a molecular catalyst on carbon nanotubes for highly efficient electro-catalytic water oxidation journal January 2014
A Million Turnover Molecular Anode for Catalytic Water Oxidation journal November 2016
Electrochemical driven water oxidation by molecular catalysts in situ polymerized on the surface of graphite carbon electrode journal January 2015
Covalent Surface Modification of Oxide Surfaces journal May 2014
Surface Modification Using Phosphonic Acids and Esters journal April 2012
Immobilization of a Molecular Cobaloxime Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution on a Mesoporous Metal Oxide Electrode journal November 2012
Electron Transfer in Dye-Sensitised Semiconductors Modified with Molecular Cobalt Catalysts: Photoreduction of Aqueous Protons journal October 2012
Catalytic water oxidation on derivatized nanoITO journal January 2010
Hydroxamate Anchors for Improved Photoconversion in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells journal May 2013
Photostability of Phosphonate-Derivatized, Ru II Polypyridyl Complexes on Metal Oxide Surfaces journal February 2012
Electrochemical Instability of Phosphonate-Derivatized, Ruthenium(III) Polypyridyl Complexes on Metal Oxide Surfaces journal May 2015
Application of the Rotating Ring-Disc-Electrode Technique to Water Oxidation by Surface-Bound Molecular Catalysts journal September 2013
Stabilization of Ruthenium(II) Polypyridyl Chromophores on Nanoparticle Metal-Oxide Electrodes in Water by Hydrophobic PMMA Overlayers journal September 2014
Crossing the divide between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis in water oxidation journal November 2013
Synthesis, characterization, and water oxidation by a molecular chromophore-catalyst assembly prepared by atomic layer deposition. The “mummy” strategy journal January 2015
Studies on the Effect of Solvents on Self-Assembled Monolayers Formed from Organophosphonic Acids on Indium Tin Oxide journal June 2012
Characterization of Indium−Tin Oxide Interfaces Using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Redox Processes of a Chemisorbed Probe Molecule:  Effect of Surface Pretreatment Conditions journal January 2002
Dependence of indium–tin–oxide work function on surface cleaning method as studied by ultraviolet and x-ray photoemission spectroscopies journal January 2000
Electrical properties and defect model of tin-doped indium oxide layers journal April 1982
Importance of indium tin oxide surface acido basicity for charge injection into organic materials based light emitting diodes journal June 2000
Surface conditioning of indium-tin oxide anodes for organic light-emitting diodes journal December 2003
Effect of Tin-Doped Indium Oxide Electrode Preparation Methods on the Mediated Electrochemical Detection of Nucleic Acids journal February 2003
Surface Modification of SnO 2 Photoelectrodes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Significant Improvements in Photovoltage via Al 2 O 3 Atomic Layer Deposition journal April 2010
Application of High Surface Area Tin-Doped Indium Oxide Nanoparticle Films as Transparent Conducting Electrodes journal September 2010
A molecular catalyst for water oxidation that binds to metal oxide surfaces journal March 2015
Establishing the Family of Diruthenium Water Oxidation Catalysts Based on the Bis(bipyridyl)pyrazolate Ligand System journal February 2016
Foot of the Wave Analysis for Mechanistic Elucidation and Benchmarking Applications in Molecular Water Oxidation Catalysis journal November 2016
Backbone Immobilization of the Bis(bipyridyl)pyrazolate Diruthenium Catalyst for Electrochemical Water Oxidation journal February 2017
Effect of the Anchoring Group in Ru−Bipyridyl Sensitizers on the Photoelectrochemical Behavior of Dye-Sensitized TiO 2 Electrodes:  Carboxylate versus Phosphonate Linkages journal May 2006
Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation with Photosystem II Integrated in a Mesoporous Indium–Tin Oxide Electrode journal May 2012
Enhancing H 2 evolution performance of an immobilised cobalt catalyst by rational ligand design journal January 2015
Rotating Ring–Disk Electrode Study of Oxygen Evolution at a Perovskite Surface: Correlating Activity to Manganese Concentration journal December 2016
Highly Efficient Oxidation of Water by a Molecular Catalyst Immobilized on Carbon Nanotubes journal October 2011
Behavior of the Ru-bda Water Oxidation Catalyst Covalently Anchored on Glassy Carbon Electrodes journal May 2015
Low-Overpotential Water Oxidation by a Surface-Bound Ruthenium-Chromophore-Ruthenium-Catalyst Assembly journal November 2013
Characterization of minerals and organic phosphorus species in marine sediments using soft X-ray fluorescence spectromicroscopy journal January 2007
X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) at the phosphorus K-edge of triorganophosphinechalcogenides journal May 1999
Soft X-ray Spectroscopy and Spectromicroscopy Studies of Organic Molecules in the Environment journal January 2002
X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Study of the Effect of Protonation on Disorder and Multiple Scattering in Phosphate Solutions and Solids journal June 2009
Dipicolinic acid: a strong anchoring group with tunable redox and spectral behavior for stable dye-sensitized solar cells journal January 2015
Anchoring groups for photocatalytic water oxidation on metal oxide surfaces journal January 2017

Cited By (4)

Influence of a Π-Conjugated Bridging Ligand in Light-Emitting Electrochemical Cells (LEECs) journal July 2018
Fighting Deactivation: Classical and Emerging Strategies for Efficient Stabilization of Molecular Electrocatalysts journal January 2020
Peroxide Yield of the (001) La 0.6 Sr 0.4 MnO 3 Surface as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction and Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Media journal January 2019
Electrocatalytic oxygen evolution with a cobalt complex journal January 2017

Figures / Tables (8)


Similar Records

Plasma-Initiated Graft Polymerization of Acrylic Acid onto Fluorine-Doped Tin Oxide as a Platform for Immobilization of Water-Oxidation Catalysts
Journal Article · Mon Mar 22 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces · OSTI ID:1393664

Crossing the bridge from molecular catalysis to a heterogenous electrode in electrocatalytic water oxidation
Journal Article · Thu May 16 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · OSTI ID:1393664

Electron Transfer Mediator Effects in the Oxidative Activation of a Ruthenium Dicarboxylate Water Oxidation Catalyst
Journal Article · Fri Jun 19 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · ACS Catalysis · OSTI ID:1393664