No abstract

A longstanding challenge in molecular electrocatalysis is to design catalysts that break away from the tradeoff between rate and overpotential arising from electronic scaling relationships. Here we report an inversion of the rate−overpotential correlation through system-level design of [Ni-(P R 2 N R′ 2 ) 2 ] 2+ electrocatalysts for the production of H 2 . The overpotential is lowered by an electron-withdrawing ligand, while the turnover frequency is increased by controlling the catalyst structural dynamics, using both ligand design and solvent viscosity. The cumulative effect of controlling each of these system components is an electrocatalyst with a turnover frequency of 70000 s −1 and an overpotential of 230 mV, corresponding to a 100-fold rate enhancement and a 170 mV reduction in overpotential in comparison to the parent nickel catalyst. Molecular Tafel plot analysis reveals that the new catalysts reported here are substantially more efficient than other leading molecular electrocatalysts for the production of H 2 .

The intramolecular cyclohexylene-bridged P/B frustrated Lewis pair [Mes(2)P-C(6)H(10)-B(C(6)F(5))(2)] 1b reacts rapidly with NO to give the persistent FLP-NO aminoxyl radical 2b formed by P/B addition to the nitrogen atom of NO. This species was fully characterized by X-ray diffraction, EPR and UV/vis spectroscopies, C,H,N elemental analysis, and DFT calculations. The reactive oxygen-centered radical 2b undergoes a H-atom abstraction (HAA) reaction with 1,4-cyclohexadiene to give the diamagnetic FLP-NOH product 3b. FLP-NO 2b reacts with toluene at 70 °C in an HAA/radical capture sequence to give a 1:1 mixture of FLP-NOH 3b and FLP-NO-CH(2)Ph 4b, both characterized by X-ray diffraction. Structurally related FLPs [Mes(2)P-CHR(1)-CHR(2)-B(C(6)F(5))(2)] 1c, 1d, and 1e react analogously with NO to give the respective persistent FLP-NO radicals 2c, 2d, and 2e, respectively, which show similar HAA and O-functionalization reactions. The FLP-NO-CHMePh 6b derived from 1-bromoethylbenzene undergoes NO-C bond cleavage at 120 °C with an activation energy of E(a) = 35(2) kcal/mol. Species 6b induces the controlled nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization (NMP) of styrene at 130 °C to give polystyrene with a polydispersity index of 1.3. The FLP-NO systems represent a new family of aminoxyl radicals that are easily available by N,N-cycloaddition of C(2)-bridged intramolecular P/B frustrated Lewis pairs to nitric oxide.

The fastest synthetic molecular catalysts for H production and oxidation emulate components of the active site of hydrogenases. The critical role of controlled structural dynamics is recognized for many enzymes, including hydrogenases, but is largely neglected in designing synthetic catalysts. Our results demonstrate the impact of controlling structural dynamics on H production rates for [Ni(P N ) ] catalysts (R=n-hexyl, n-decyl, n-tetradecyl, n-octadecyl, phenyl, or cyclohexyl). The turnover frequencies correlate inversely with the rates of chair-boat ring inversion of the ligand, since this dynamic process governs protonation at either catalytically productive or non-productive sites. These results demonstrate that the dynamic processes involved in proton delivery can be controlled through modification of the outer coordination sphere, in a manner similar to the role of the protein architecture in many enzymes. As a design parameter, controlling structural dynamics can increase H production rates by three orders of magnitude with a minimal increase in overpotential.