Water oxidation with cobalt-loaded linear conjugated polymer photocatalysts

Sprick, Reiner Sebastian and Chen, Zheng and Cowan, Alexander J. and Bai, Yang and Aitchison, Catherine M. and Fang, Yuanxing and Zwijnenburg, Martijn A. and Cooper, Andrew I. and Wang, Xinchen (2020) Water oxidation with cobalt-loaded linear conjugated polymer photocatalysts. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 59 (42). pp. 18695-18700. ISSN 1433-7851 (https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202008000)

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Abstract

The first examples of linear conjugated organic polymer photocatalysts that produce oxygen from water after loading with cobalt and in the presence of an electron scavenger are reported. The oxygen evolution rates, which are higher than for related organic materials, can be rationalized by a combination of the thermodynamic driving force for water oxidation, the light absorption of the polymer, and the aqueous dispersibility of the relatively hydrophilic polymer particles. We also used transient absorption spectroscopy to study the best performing system and we found that fast oxidative quenching of the exciton occurs (picoseconds) in the presence of an electron scavenger, minimizing recombination.