Redox‐Active Ligand Assisted Catalytic Water Oxidation by a Ru^IV=O Intermediate

Abstract

Abstract Water splitting is one of the most promising solutions for storing solar energy in a chemical bond. Water oxidation is still the bottleneck step because of its inherent difficulty and the limited understanding of the O−O bond formation mechanism. Molecular catalysts provide a platform for understanding this process in depth and have received wide attention since the first Ru‐based catalyst was reported in 1982. Ru V =O is considered a key intermediate to initiate the O−O bond formation through either a water nucleophilic attack (WNA) pathway or a bimolecular coupling (I2M) pathway. Herein, we report a Ru‐based catalyst that displays water oxidation reactivity with Ru IV =(O) with the help of a redox‐active ligand at pH 7.0. The results of electrochemical studies and DFT calculations disclose that ligand oxidation could significantly improve the reactivity of Ru IV =O toward water oxidation. Under these conditions, sustained water oxidation catalysis occurs at reasonable rates with low overpotential (ca. 183 mV).