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Updated: Jun 8, 2025

Developing Photosensitizer-Cobaloxime Hybrids for Solar-Driven H2 Production in Aqueous Aerobic Conditions
Published on: October 5, 2019
A bioinspired water oxidation catalyst that is ∼1/10th as active as the photosystem II oxygen evolving center at pH
Danijel Boskovic1, Richard Terrett2, Matthew Longhurst1
1Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and ARC Centre of Excellence in Electromaterials Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. swiegers@uow.edu.au.
Abstract:
The activity and stability of a heterogeneous water oxidation catalyst inspired by the Photosystem II - Oxygen Evolving Center (PSII-OEC) is reported. Ca-doped birnessite MnO supported on a liquid crystalline reduced graphene oxide (LCrGO) substrate exhibited unprecedented performance for an abiological catalyst at pH 7, including an exceedingly low onset overpotential of 0.52 V (vs. 0.48 V reported for the PSII-OEC, 0.75 V for Pt, and 0.72 V for birnesite MnO) and remarkably high activity per unit area at 0.56 V overpotential (∼10% that of a hypothetical, closely-packed monolayer of OEC sites at their optimum density of 1014 sites per cm2).
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