Biphasic water splitting by osmocene

Abstract

The photochemical reactivity of osmocene in a biphasic waterorganic solvent system has been investigated to probe its water splitting properties. The photoreduction of aqueous protons to hydrogen under anaerobic conditions induced by osmocene dissolved in 1,2-dichloroethane and the subsequent water splitting by the osmocenium metal-metal dimer formed during H 2 production were studied by electrochemical methods, UV-visible spectrometry, gas chromatography, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Density functional theory computations were used to validate the reaction pathways.S olar water splitting is undoubtedly a key challenge (1-3), and in the quest for solar fuels, hydrogen is definitely a major target with many industrial applications ranging from transportation to carbon dioxide mitigation (4).Interestingly, some transition metal complexes like metallocenes have been reported to reduce protons to hydrogen. In 1988, cobaltocene was found to produce hydrogen in strong acidic solutions. The mechanism was investigated by pulse radiolysis, and it was found that the reaction kinetics was first order with respect to cobaltocene and the protons pointing to a protonation of the metal as the primary step (5). In 2009, Kunkely and Vogler reported that osmocene dissolved in strong acidic solutions could photogenerate hydrogen and that ½Cp 2 Os IV ðOH − Þ þ could photogenerate oxygen (6). Proton reduction was shown to proceed also by the formation of a hydride followed under UV light by the formation of H 2 and the dimer ½Cp 2 Os III -Os III Cp 2 2þ .One of the major difficulties in studying water splitting by metallocenes is their very poor solubility in aqueous or even acidic solutions. When investigating the reduction of protons in organic phases where metallocenes are soluble, the other major drawback is the low solubility and dissociation of acids in organic solvents. One way to circumvent these issues is to carry out these reactions in biphasic systems.In 2008, we studied the reduction of aqueous protons by decamethylferrocene (DMFc) in 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCE), and, here again the data suggested that the first step is the protonation of the metal (7). In particular, we have shown that hydrogen bubbles can form at the interface and that hydrogen production is associated to the oxidation of the electron donor DMFc. More generally, we have shown that voltammetry at the interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions (ITIES) is a very useful tool to study proton coupled electron transfer reactions involving aqueous protons and organic electron donors (8-10). This methodology has been also applied to molecular electrocatalysis where an amphiphilic catalyst is used to complex oxygen to facilitate its reduction as recently reviewed (10-13).In this study, the photochemical reactivity of osmocene with water in biphasic systems has been investigated by electrochemical methods on solid electrodes and soft liquid-liquid interfaces to unravel the multistep reaction mechanisms. Density functional theory (DFT)...

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