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  • Perspective
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The development of molecular water oxidation catalysts

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 3, pages 331–341 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

There is an urgent need to transition from fossil fuels to solar fuels — not only to lower CO2 emissions that cause global warming but also to ration fossil resources. Splitting H2O with sunlight emerges as a clean and sustainable energy conversion scheme that can afford practical technologies in the short-to-mid-term. A crucial component in such a device is a water oxidation catalyst (WOC). These artificial catalysts have been developed mainly over the past two decades, which is in contrast to nature’s WOCs, which have featured in its photosynthetic apparatus for more than a billion years. Recent times have seen the development of increasingly active molecular WOCs, the study of which affords an understanding of catalytic mechanisms and decomposition pathways. This Perspective offers a historical description of the landmark molecular WOCs, particularly ruthenium systems, that have guided research to our present degree of understanding.

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Fig. 1: Nature uses metalloenzymes to effect redox reactions that consume or afford H2O.
Fig. 2: Transition metal complexes of N-donor ligands are prominent H2O oxidation catalysts.
Fig. 3: The evolution of molecular H2O oxidation catalysts.
Fig. 4: Pourbaix diagrams for Ru complexes indicate stability across a wide pH range.
Fig. 5: Two mechanisms of molecular H2O oxidation catalysts.
Fig. 6: Voltammetry of [(tda-κ-N3,O)(py)2Ruiv(OH)]+ (11) and [(mox)Cuii]2– (12) reveals catalytic H2O oxidation.

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Acknowledgements

Sustained support from Mineco, the European Fund for Economic and Regional Development (FEDER) and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) are gratefully acknowledged. Recent grants include CTQ2015-64261-R, CTQ2016-80058-R, CTQ2015-73028-EXP, SEV 2013–0319, ENE2016-82025-REDT, CTQ2016-81923-REDC and 2017-SGR-1631. The work at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) (M.Z.E.) was carried out under contract DE-SC0012704 with the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and utilized computational resources at the BNL Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN). The CFN is a DOE Office of Science Facility at BNL operating under contract no. DE-SC0012704.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Tarragona, Spain

    Roc Matheu, Pablo Garrido-Barros, Marcos Gil-Sepulcre, Carolina Gimbert-Suriñach & Antoni Llobet

  2. Departament de Química Física i Inorgànica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Marcel lí Domingo s/n, Tarragona, Spain

    Roc Matheu & Pablo Garrido-Barros

  3. Chemistry Division, Energy & Photon Sciences Directorate, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

    Mehmed Z. Ertem

  4. Departament de Química, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain

    Xavier Sala & Antoni Llobet

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Matheu, R., Garrido-Barros, P., Gil-Sepulcre, M. et al. The development of molecular water oxidation catalysts. Nat Rev Chem 3, 331–341 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-019-0096-0

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