Molecular electrochemical water photo-oxidation

Mar del Plata

Conferencia; 34° Topical Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry; 2023

Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata

Towards the goal of artificial photosynthesis, water photo-oxidation remains a major challenge. Light-driven water oxidation on semiconductor photoelectrodes has been the major pole of investigations withslow progress due to the difficulty in developing electrode materials with high chemical stability, suitableoptoelectronic properties, and high catalytic efficiencies. The molecular routes have relied on thesynthesis of organometallic compounds acting as antennae and redox catalysts, but none have yet foundindustrial applications.Here, we shall present our based on the self-assembly of simple organic molecules such astetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQF 4 ). In theformer case (1-3), we shall show that TTF ?+ /TTF assemblies on carbon electrodes can act as antennae andredox electron acceptors for the 4-electron oxidation. In the latter case (3), the assembly of TCNQF 4 alsoperforms the photo-oxidation of water but at water-butyronitrile interface.In both cases, a water-butyronitrile emulsion is used where the aqueous phase ?pumps? the protonsformed during water oxidation and where the organic phase is used to dissolve the different molecularassemblies.The extension of this work to batch water-splitting in emulsion systems will be presented.