Molecular Catalysts for Water Oxidation and Hydrogen Evolution
This community develops molecular complexes of vanadium, cobalt, and manganese to drive the electrochemical splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The research centers on the synthesis and structural characterization of transition metal complexes, particularly those built on vanadium, cobalt, and manganese cores. These molecules are engineered to act as catalysts for the water oxidation and hydrogen evolution reactions, often utilizing Schiff base ligands to tune their electronic properties. The work focuses on understanding the electron transfer mechanisms and bond formation steps that enable these molecular systems to mimic the efficiency of natural enzymes like hydrogenases. Applications range from fundamental studies of catalytic activity in acidic media to the development of efficient electrocatalysts for renewable energy production.
The community is most heavily concentrated in vanadium research, accounting for 8.6% of all tracked vanadium papers, followed by manganese at 4.5% and cobalt at 1.7%.
The group comprises 22,819 papers, with the highest publication volume in Inorganic Chemistry, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Inorganica Chimica Acta.
Recent work continues to explore the mechanistic details of oxygen-oxygen bond formation in heterogeneous systems and the application of vanadium-dependent enzymes for selective organic transformations, such as the oxidative rearrangement of indoles.