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Published on: February 11, 2016
Photodriven water oxidation initiated by a surface bound chromophore-donor-catalyst assembly
Degao Wang1,2,3, Zihao Xu4, Matthew V Sheridan3
1Engineering Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials, Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Ningbo Zhejiang 315201 China wangdegao@nimte.ac.cn.
Abstract:
In photosynthesis, solar energy is used to produce solar fuels in the form of new chemical bonds. A critical step to mimic photosystem II (PS II), a key protein in nature's photosynthesis, for artificial photosynthesis is designing devices for efficient light-driven water oxidation. Here, we describe a single molecular assembly electrode that duplicates the key components of PSII. It consists of a polypyridyl light absorber, chemically linked to an intermediate electron donor, with a molecular-based water oxidation catalyst on a SnO2/TiO2 core/shell electrode. The synthetic device mimics PSII in achieving sustained, light-driven water oxidation catalysis. It highlights the value of the tyrosine-histidine pair in PSII in achieving efficient water oxidation catalysis in artificial photosynthetic devices.
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