Probing Edge Site Reactivity of Oxidic Cobalt Water Oxidation Catalysts

Differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) analysis of the oxygen isotopologues produced by (18)O-labeled Co-OEC in H2(16)O reveals that water splitting catalysis proceeds by a mechanism that involves direct coupling between oxygens bound to dicobalt edge sites of Co-OEC. The edge site chemistry of Co-OEC has been probed by using a dinuclear cobalt complex. (17)O NMR spectroscopy shows that ligand exchange of OH/OH2 at Co(III) edge sites is slow, which is also confirmed by DEMS experiments of Co-OEC. In borate (Bi) and phosphate (Pi) buffers, anions must be displaced to allow water to access the edge sites for an O-O bond coupling to occur. Anion exchange in Pi is slow, taking days to equilibrate at room temperature. Conversely, anion exchange in Bi is rapid (kassoc = 13.1 ± 0.4 M(-1) s(-1) at 25 °C), enabled by facile changes in boron coordination. These results are consistent with the OER activity of Co-OEC in Bi and Pi. The Pi binding kinetics are too slow to establish a pre-equilibrium sufficiently fast to influence the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), consistent with the zero-order dependence of Pi on the OER current density; in contrast, Bi exchange is sufficiently facile such that Bi has an inhibitory effect on OER. These complementary studies on Co-OEC and the dicobalt edge site mimic allow for a direct connection, at a molecular level, to be made between the mechanisms of heterogeneous and homogeneous OER.