Oxygen reduction with tetrathiafulvalene at liquid/liquid interfaces catalyzed by 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin

Electrocatalysis of molecular oxygen reduction reaction at liquid-liquid interface and DFT computational study of proton transfer from the conjugate acid of 2,2'-dipyridylamineto oxygen

In this study, the catalytic effect of 2,2'-dipyridylamine (DPA) on the reduction of oxygen (O₂) at the polarized water/1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) interface was investigated. Ferrocene (Fc) and tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) were weak electron donors used in this study. Slow reduction of O₂ at the interface containing Fc and TTF was significantly accelerated upon the addition of DPA. Voltammetry and biphasic shake flask experiments revealed that DPA acts as a proton ionophore to transfer protons between the aqueous and organic phases. The PA, GB, and pK_a values of all possible conjugate acids of DPA were calculated. Then, a mechanism was suggested to explain the interaction between protonated DPA and oxygen molecular. The mechanism was computationally analyzed by using density functional theory (DFT). Furthermore, DFT calculations at the B3LYP/6-31G** level of theory showed that the conjugate acid species of DPA transfer proton to O₂ at the interface. The results show that DPA-H²⁺ and DPA-H¹⁺ are the best species to transfer proton to molecular oxygen.

Electrochemistry-mass spectrometry for mechanism study of oxygen reduction at water/oil interface

Electrochemistry methods have been widely employed in the development of renewable energy, and involved in various processes, e.g. water splitting and oxygen reduction. Remarkable progress notwithstanding, there are still many challenges in further optimization of catalysts to achieve high performance. For this purpose, an in-depth understanding of reaction mechanism is needed. In this study, an electrochemistry-mass spectrometry method based on a Y-shaped dual-channel microchip as electrochemical cell and ionization device was demonstrated. Combined solutions of aqueous phase and oil phase were introduced into mass spectrometer directly when electrochemical reactions were happening to study the reduction of oxygen by decamethylferrocene or tetrathiafulvalene under the catalysis of a metal-free porphyrin, tetraphenylporphyrin, at water/1,2-dichloroethane interfaces. Monoprotonated and diprotonated tetraphenylporphyrin were detected by mass spectrometer, confirming the previously proposed mechanism of the oxygen reduction reaction. This work offers a new approach to study electrochemical reactions at liquid-liquid interface.

Catalytic two-electron reduction of dioxygen catalysed by metal-free [14]triphyrin(2.1.1)

The catalytic two-electron reduction of dioxygen (O₂) by octamethylferrocene (Me₈Fc) occurs with a metal-free triphyrin (HTrip) in the presence of perchloric acid (HClO₄) in benzonitrile (PhCN) at 298 K to yield Me₈Fc⁺ and H₂O₂. Detailed kinetic analysis has revealed that the catalytic two-electron reduction of O₂ by Me₈Fc with HTrip proceeds via proton-coupled electron transfer from Me₈Fc to HTrip to produce H₃Trip˙⁺, followed by a second electron transfer from Me₈Fc to H₃Trip˙⁺ to produce H₃Trip, which is oxidized by O₂via formation of the H₃Trip/O₂ complex to yield H₂O₂. The rate-determining step in the catalytic cycle is hydrogen atom transfer from H₃Trip to O₂ in the H₃Trip/O₂ complex to produce the radical pair (H₃Trip˙⁺ HO₂˙) as an intermediate, which was detected as a triplet EPR signal with fine-structure by the EPR measurements at low temperature. The distance between the two unpaired electrons in the radical pair was determined to be 4.9 Å from the zero-field splitting constant (D).