Small Organic Molecular Electrocatalysts for Fuels Production

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie International Edition Vol. 63; no. 7; pp. e202312879 - n/a
• Main Authors: Torres‐Méndez, Carlos, Axelsson, Martin, Tian, Haining
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 12-02-2024
• Edition: International ed. in English
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide; Catalytic activity; CO2 Reduction; Coordination compounds; Electrocatalysts; Energy conversion; Energy storage; Fuels; Hydrogen Evolution; Hydrogen production; Mechanistic Study; Metal complexes; Organic chemistry; Organic compounds; Organocatalysis; Oxidation; Water Oxidation; Water Oxidation; Hydrogen Evolution; Mechanistic Study; Organocatalysis; CO2 Reduction
• ISSN: 1433-7851; 1521-3773
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.202312879

In recent years, heterocyclic organic compounds have been explored as molecular electrocatalysts in relevant reactions for energy conversion and storage. Merging mimetics of biological systems that perform hydride transfer with rational synthetic chemical design has opened many opportunities for organic molecules to be tuned at the atomic level conferring them interesting reactivities. These molecular electrocatalysts represent an alternative to traditional metallic materials and metal complexes employed for water oxidation, hydrogen production, and carbon dioxide reduction. This minireview describes recent reports concerning design, catalytic activity and the mechanism of synthetic molecular electrocatalysts towards solar fuels production.
In this Minireview, recent efforts to develop electrocatalytic systems consisting of small organic molecules employed for energy relevant reactions such as water oxidation, hydrogen evolution and carbon dioxide reduction are highlighted.