1.
J Phys Chem Lett
; 14(2): 476-480, 2023 Jan 19.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36625580
ABSTRACT
Heteroatom-doped polyaromatic hydrocarbons (or nanographenes) are promising molecular electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Here, we use density functional theory to investigate the first step of the ORR pathway (chemisorption) for a set of molecules with experimentally determined catalytic activities. Weak chemisorption is found for only negatively charged catalysts, and a strong correlation is observed between the computed electron affinities and experimental catalytic activities for a range of B- and B,N-doped polyaromatic hydrocarbons. The electron affinity is put forward as a simple activity descriptor of charged (activated) catalysts on an electrode.