Modulation of a µ-1,2-Peroxo Dicopper(II) Intermediate by Strong Interaction with Alkali Metal Ions.

The properties of metal/dioxygen species, which are key intermediates in oxidation catalysis, can be modulated by interaction with redox-inactive Lewis acids, but structural information about these adducts is scarce. Here we demonstrate that even mildly Lewis acidic alkali metal ions, which are typically viewed as innocent "spectators", bind strongly to a reactive cis-peroxo dicopper(II) intermediate. Unprecedented structural insight has now been obtained from X-ray crystallographic characterization of the "bare" CuII2(µ-η1:η1-O2) motif and its Li+, Na+, and K+ complexes. UV-vis, Raman, and electrochemical studies show that the binding persists in MeCN solution, growing stronger in proportion to the cation's Lewis acidity. The affinity for Li+ is surprisingly high (∼70 × 104 M-1), leading to Li+ extraction from its crown ether complex. Computational analysis indicates that the alkali ions influence the entire Cu-OO-Cu core, modulating the degree of charge transfer from copper to dioxygen. This induces significant changes in the electronic, magnetic, and electrochemical signatures of the Cu2O2 species. These findings have far-reaching implications for analyses of transient metal/dioxygen intermediates, which are often studied in situ, and they may be relevant to many (bio)chemical oxidation processes when considering the widespread presence of alkali cations in synthetic and natural environments.

Imidazolium-modification enhances photocatalytic CO2 reduction on ZnSe quantum dots.

Colloidal photocatalysts can utilize solar light for the conversion of CO2 to carbon-based fuels, but controlling the product selectivity for CO2 reduction remains challenging, in particular in aqueous solution. Here, we present an organic surface modification strategy to tune the product selectivity of colloidal ZnSe quantum dots (QDs) towards photocatalytic CO2 reduction even in the absence of transition metal co-catalysts. Besides H2, imidazolium-modified ZnSe QDs evolve up to 2.4 mmolCO gZnSe -1 (TONQD > 370) after 10 h of visible light irradiation (AM 1.5G, λ > 400 nm) in aqueous ascorbate solution with a CO-selectivity of up to 20%. This represents a four-fold increase in CO-formation yield and 13-fold increase in CO-selectivity compared to non-functionalized ZnSe QDs. The binding of the thiolated imidazolium ligand to the QD surface is characterized quantitatively using 1H-NMR spectroscopy and isothermal titration calorimetry, revealing that a subset of 12 to 17 ligands interacts strongly with the QDs. Transient absorption spectroscopy reveals an influence of the ligand on the intrinsic charge carrier dynamics through passivating Zn surface sites. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the imidazolium capping ligand plays a key role in stabilizing the surface-bound *CO2 - intermediate, increasing the yield and selectivity toward CO production. Overall, this work unveils a powerful tool of using organic capping ligands to modify the chemical environment on colloids, thus enabling control over the product selectivity within photocatalyzed CO2 reduction.

Electro- and Solar-Driven Fuel Synthesis with First Row Transition Metal Complexes.

The synthesis of renewable fuels from abundant water or the greenhouse gas CO2 is a major step toward creating sustainable and scalable energy storage technologies. In the last few decades, much attention has focused on the development of nonprecious metal-based catalysts and, in more recent years, their integration in solid-state support materials and devices that operate in water. This review surveys the literature on 3d metal-based molecular catalysts and focuses on their immobilization on heterogeneous solid-state supports for electro-, photo-, and photoelectrocatalytic synthesis of fuels in aqueous media. The first sections highlight benchmark homogeneous systems using proton and CO2 reducing 3d transition metal catalysts as well as commonly employed methods for catalyst immobilization, including a discussion of supporting materials and anchoring groups. The subsequent sections elaborate on productive associations between molecular catalysts and a wide range of substrates based on carbon, quantum dots, metal oxide surfaces, and semiconductors. The molecule-material hybrid systems are organized as "dark" cathodes, colloidal photocatalysts, and photocathodes, and their figures of merit are discussed alongside system stability and catalyst integrity. The final section extends the scope of this review to prospects and challenges in targeting catalysis beyond "classical" H2 evolution and CO2 reduction to C1 products, by summarizing cases for higher-value products from N2 reduction, C x>1 products from CO2 utilization, and other reductive organic transformations.

Selective Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction in Water through Anchoring of a Molecular Ni Catalyst on CdS Nanocrystals.

Photocatalytic conversion of CO2 into carbonaceous feedstock chemicals is a promising strategy to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and simultaneously store solar energy in chemical form. Photocatalysts for this transformation are typically based on precious metals and operate in nonaqueous solvents to suppress competing H2 generation. In this work, we demonstrate selective visible-light-driven CO2 reduction in water using a synthetic photocatalyst system that is entirely free of precious metals. We present a series of self-assembled nickel terpyridine complexes as electrocatalysts for the reduction of CO2 to CO in organic media. Immobilization on CdS quantum dots allows these catalysts to be active in purely aqueous solution and photocatalytically reduce CO2 with >90% selectivity under UV-filtered simulated solar light irradiation (AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm-2, λ > 400 nm, pH 6.7, 25 °C). Correlation between catalyst immobilization efficiency and product selectivity shows that anchoring the molecular catalyst on the semiconductor surface is key in controlling the selectivity for CO2 reduction over H2 evolution in aqueous solution.

Weakly coupled biologically relevant Cu(II)2(µ-η¹:η¹-O2) cis-peroxo adduct that binds side-on to additional metal ions.

The ability of many copper metalloenzymes to activate O2 and transfer it to organic substrates has motivated extensive attention in the literature. Investigations focusing on synthetic analogues have provided a detailed understanding of the structures of potential intermediates, thereby helping to guide mechanistic studies. We report herein a crystallographically characterized synthetic Cu(II)2(µ-η(1):η(1)-O2) complex exhibiting cis-peroxo bonding geometry, known in iron chemistry but previously unobserved for copper. Detailed investigation by UV-vis, resonance Raman, and infrared spectroscopies provides evidence for a significantly diminished copper-oxygen interaction (ε ≈ 3000 M(-1) cm(-1), ν(Cu-O) = 437 cm(-1), ν(O-O) = 799 cm(-1)) relative to those in known 'coupled' Cu2O2 species, consistent with magnetic measurements which show that the peroxide mediates only weak antiferromagnetic coupling (-2J = 144 cm(-1)). These characteristics are comparable with those of a computationally predicted transition state for O2 binding to type 3 copper centers, providing experimental evidence for the proposed mechanism of O2 activation and supporting the biological relevance of the Cu(II)2(µ-η(1):η(1)-O2) cis-species. The peroxide bonding arrangement also allows binding of sodium cations, observed both in the solid state and in solution. Binding induces changes on an electronic level, as monitored by UV-vis spectroscopy (K(a) = 1700 M(-1)), reminiscent of redox-inactive metal binding by iron-oxygen species. The results presented highlight the analogous chemistry these reactive oxygen species undergo, with respect to both their mechanism of formation, and the molecular interactions in which they participate.

The role of Zn-OR and Zn-OH nucleophiles and the influence of para-substituents in the reactions of binuclear phosphatase mimetics.

Analogues of the ligand 2,2'-(2-hydroxy-5-methyl-1,3-phenylene)bis(methylene)bis((pyridin-2-ylmethyl)azanediyl)diethanol (CH(3)H(3)L1) are described. Complexation of these analogues, 2,6-bis(((2-methoxyethyl)(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)amino)methyl)-4-methylphenol (CH(3)HL2), 4-bromo-2,6-bis(((2-methoxyethyl)(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)amino)methyl)phenol (BrHL2), 2,6-bis(((2-methoxyethyl)(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)amino)methyl)-4-nitrophenol (NO(2)HL2) and 4-methyl-2,6-bis(((2-phenoxyethyl)(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)amino)methyl)phenol (CH(3)HL3) with zinc(II) acetate afforded [Zn(2)(CH(3)L2)(CH(3)COO)(2)](PF(6)), [Zn(2)(NO(2)L2)(CH(3)COO)(2)](PF(6)), [Zn(2)(BrL2)(CH(3)COO)(2)](PF(6)) and [Zn(2)(CH(3)L3)(CH(3)COO)(2)](PF(6)), in addition to [Zn(4)(CH(3)L2)(2)(NO(2)C(6)H(5)OPO(3))(2)(H(2)O)(2)](PF(6))(2) and [Zn(4)(BrL2)(2)(PO(3)F)(2)(H(2)O)(2)](PF(6))(2). The complexes were characterized using (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, microanalysis, and X-ray crystallography. The complexes contain either a coordinated methyl- (L2 ligands) or phenyl- (L3 ligand) ether, replacing the potentially nucleophilic coordinated alcohol in the previously reported complex [Zn(2)(CH(3)HL1)(CH(3)COO)(H(2)O)](PF(6)). Functional studies of the zinc complexes with the substrate bis(2,4-dinitrophenyl) phosphate (BDNPP) showed them to be competent catalysts with, for example, [Zn(2)(CH(3)L2)](+), k(cat) = 5.70 ± 0.04 × 10(-3) s(-1) (K(m) = 20.8 ± 5.0 mM) and [Zn(2)(CH(3)L3)](+), k(cat) = 3.60 ± 0.04 × 10(-3) s(-1) (K(m) = 18.9 ± 3.5 mM). Catalytically relevant pK(a)s of 6.7 and 7.7 were observed for the zinc(II) complexes of CH(3)L2(-) and CH(3)L3(-), respectively. Electron donating para-substituents enhance the rate of hydrolysis of BDNPP such that k(cat)p-CH(3) > p-Br > p-NO(2). Use of a solvent mixture containing H(2)O(18)/H(2)O(16) in the reaction with BDNPP showed that for [Zn(2)(CH(3)L2)(CH(3)COO)(2)](PF(6)) and [Zn(2)(NO(2)L2)(CH(3)COO)(2)](PF(6)), as well as [Zn(2)(CH(3)HL1)(CH(3)COO)(H(2)O)](PF(6)), the (18)O label was incorporated in the product of the hydrolysis suggesting that the nucleophile involved in the hydrolysis reaction was a Zn-OH moiety. The results are discussed with respect to the potential nucleophilic species (coordinated deprotonated alcohol versus coordinated hydroxide).