Yatsuzuka Koichi, Yamauchi Kosei, Sakai Ken
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Motooka 744, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan.
Chem Commun (Camb). 2021 May 25;57(42):5183-5186. doi: 10.1039/d1cc00903f. Epub 2021 Apr 27.
A Pt(ii)-based photo-hydrogen-evolving molecular device tethered to dimethyl-substituted viologens (Pt(bpy)(dmMV)), providing higher driving force for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) than the non-methylated analogue (Pt(bpy)(MV)), is found to exhibit improved photocatalytic performance. The observed behaviors are explained by the multiple HER pathways taken by evolving H by the doubly and triply reduced species generated via consecutive photo-driven steps. Although the activity is still killed by the Dexter-type energy transfer quenching, our results provide new design strategies towards the development of more finely tuned molecular devices controlling the photocatalytic HER.
