Electrocatalysts play an essential role in converting electrical energy into fuel and vice versa. A wide variety of well defined molecular catalysts have been developed to catalyze key reactions like water oxidation, proton reduction, carbon dioxide reduction etc..[1] Immobilizing molecular catalyst on electrode surface combines the benefits of having a well defined catalytic center with the benefits of heterogeneous catalysts such as efficient electronic connection between the electrode and the catalytic center.[1]
Having surface constrained catalytic sites and using electrochemical methods enables the investigation of catalytic reactions at various potentials and the determination of kinetic thermodynamic parameters without mass transport limitations.[1]
The immobilization of molecular catalysts on an electrode surface can be achieved by incorporating them in a conducting redox polymer.[1-3] These polymers consist of a conducting polymer backbone, such as polythiophene, and covalently bound redox active pendant groups.
In this poster we present the synthesis and electrochemical characterization of conducting redox polymers bearing molecular catalysts as pendant groups. Functionalized derivatives of molecular catalysts are coupled with monomeric or trimeric units of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) or 3,4-propylenedioxythiophene (ProDOT). Subsequent electro polymerization yields functionalized electrodes which are investigated by cyclic voltammetry as well as a variety of in situ methods such as UV-vis spectroscopy, and conductance measurements.[4]
References
[1] R. M. Bullock et al., Chem. Eur. J. 23 (2017) 7626–7641.
[2] L. Wang et al. Chem., Commun. 51 (2015) 7883–7886.
[3] D. Curran et al., Chem. Soc. Rev. 20 (1991) 391.
[4] M. Sterby et al., Electrochimica Acta 308 (2019) 277–284.
2022.