Bioinspired Electro‐Organocatalytic Material Efficient for Hydrogen Production. Issue 13 (5th February 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Moral, Octavio González‐del; Call, Arnau; Franco, Federico; Moya, Alicia; Nieto‐Rodríguez, Jose Antonio; Frias, María; Fierro, Jose L. G.; Costas, Miquel; Lloret‐Fillol, Julio; Alemán, José; Mas‐Ballesté, Rubén
• Is Part Of: Chemistry. Volume 24:Issue 13(2018)
• Page Start: 3305
• Page End: 3313
• Publication Date: 2018-02-05
• Subjects: biomimetic chemistry -- electrochemistry -- hydrides -- hydrogen -- materials science; Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1002/chem.201705655
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0947-6539

Abstract

Abstract: Commercial carbon fibers can be used as electrodes with high conductive surfaces in reduced devices. Oxidative treatment of such electrodes results in a chemically robust material with high catalytic activity for electrochemical proton reduction, enabling the measurement of quantitative faradaic yields (>95 %) and high current densities. Combination of experiments and DFT calculations reveals that the presence of carboxylic groups triggers such electrocatalytic activity in a bioinspired manner. Analogously to the known Hantzsch esters, the oxidized carbon fiber material is able to transfer hydrides, which can react with protons, generating H2, or with organic substrates resulting in their hydrogenation. A plausible mechanism is proposed based on DFT calculations on model systems. Abstract : Life was doing it : Biological systems contain molecular fragments that are able to transfer hydrides in a catalytic manner. The same kind of fragments incorporated in a conductive carbon‐based material acts as an electrocatalytic site for hydrogen evolution (see figure).