Highly Enhanced Electrocatalytic OER Activity of Water-coordinated Copper Complexes: Effect of Lattice Water and Bridging Ligand

Overview

Journal RSC Adv

Publisher Royal Society of Chemistry

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2023 Apr 21

PMID 37082374

Authors

Pandi Muthukumar

Gunasekaran Arunkumar

Mehboobali Pannipara

Abdullah G Al-Sehemi

Dohyun Moon

Savarimuthu Philip Anthony

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The use of metal-organic compounds as electrocatalysts for water splitting reactions has gained increased attention; however, a fundamental understanding of the structural requirement for effective catalytic activity is still limited. Herein, we synthesized water-coordinated mono and bimetallic copper complexes (CuPz-HO·HO, CuPz-HO, CuBipy-HO·HO, and CuMorph-HO) with varied intermetallic spacing (pyrazine/4,4'-bipyridine) and explored the structure-dependent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity in alkaline medium. Single crystal structural studies revealed water-coordinated monometallic complexes (CuMorph-HO) and bimetallic complexes (CuPz-HO·HO, CuPz-HO, CuBipy-HO·HO). Further, CuPz-HO·HO and CuBipy-HO·HO contained lattice water along with coordinated water. Interestingly, the bimetallic copper complex with lattice water and shorter interspacing between the metal centres (CuPz-HO·HO) showed strong OER activity and required an overpotential of 228 mV to produce a benchmark current density of 10 mA cm. Bimetallic copper complex (CuPz-HO) without lattice water but the same intermetallic spacing and bimetallic complex with increased interspacing but with lattice water (CuBipy-HO·HO) exhibited relatively lower OER activity. CuPz-HO and CuBipy-HO·HO required an overpotential of 236 and 256 mA cm, respectively. Monometallic CuMorph-HO showed the lowest OER activity (overpotential 271 mV) compared to bimetallic complexes. The low Tafel slope and charge transfer resistance of CuPz-HO·HO facilitated faster charge transfer kinetics at the electrode surface and supported the enhanced OER activity. The chronoamperometric studies indicated good stability of the catalyst. Overall, the present structure-electrocatalytic activity studies of copper complexes might provide structural insight for designing new efficient electrocatalysts based on metal coordination compounds.

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