Towards alternatives to anodic water oxidation: basket-handle thiolate Fe(III) porphyrins for electrocatalytic hydrocarbon oxidation
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Updated: May 19, 2026

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Peiyi Li1, Khalaf Alenezi, Saad K Ibrahim
1Energy Materials Laboratory, School of Chemistry, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Selective electrocatalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons to alcohols, epoxides or other (higher value) oxygenates should in principal present a useful complementary anodic half-cell reaction to cathodic generation of fuels from water or CO(2) viz. an alternative to oxygen evolution. A series of new basket-handle thiolate Fe(III) porphyrins have been synthesised and shown to mediate anodic oxidation of hydrocarbons, specifically adamantane hydroxylation and cyclooctene epoxidation. We compare yields obtained by electrochemical and chemical oxidation of the thiolate porphyrins and benchmark their behaviour against that of Fe(III) tetraphenyl porphyrin chloride and its tetrapentafluorophenyl analogue.
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