The understanding of the water oxidation reaction to molecular oxygen is still one of the great challenges faced by scientific community. Mononuclear and dinuclear Ru complexes have been recently studied by ourselves and by other groups1, and have become a very useful platform for mechanistic studies2.
The anchoring of these molecular catalysts into solid supports is the next step to demonstrate the viability of building a device that coupled to proton reduction would lead to water splitting. Immobilization of molecular water oxidation catalysts onto metal oxides such as TiO2, SiO2, ITO or FTO as well as into carbon surfaces are some of the strategies that have been used3. The catalytic performance of these new water oxidation materials will be discussed.4
[1] (a) Duan, L.; Bozoglian, F.; Mandal, S.; Stewart, B.; Privalov, T.; Llobet, A.; Sun, L. Nature Chem. 2012, In press (b) Concepción, J. J.; Jurss, J. W.; Templeton, J. L.; Meyer, T.J. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130 (49), 16462-16463.
[2] (a) Sala, X.; Rodríguez, M.; Romero, I.; Escriche, L.; Llobet, A. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 2842. (b) Sala, X.; Cramer, C.J.; Gagliardi, L.; Llobet, A. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49(42), 7745-7747. (c) Francas, L.; Sala, X.; Escudero-Adan, E.; Benet-Buchholz, J.; Escriche, L.; Llobet, A. Inorg. Chem. 2011, 50(7), 2771-2781.
[3] (a) Li, L.; Duan, L.; Xu, Y.; Gorlov, M.; Hagfeldt, A.; Sun, L. Chem. Commun., 2010, 46, 7307-7309. (b) Francàs, L.; Sala, X.; Benet-Buchholz, J.; Escriche, L.; Llobet, A. ChemSusChem 2009, 2, 321-228. (c) Concepción, J. J.; Jurss, J. W.; Hoertz, P. G.; Meyer, T.J. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 9473.
[4] (a) Mola, J.; Mas-Marzà, E; Sala, X.; Romero, I.; Rodríguez, M.; Viñas, C.; Parella, T.; Llobet, A. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 5830-5832.