Communications
with the fact that the reduced 5 as a result of the initial elec-
tron transfer is an active species for CO2 reduction catalysis. By
measuring the ratio of peak currents with CO2 (icat) and without
CO2 (ip,c) as a function of uÀ0.5 (Figure S8b in the Supporting In-
formation),[8c–e] the pseudo-first-order rate constant (kcat) for
CO2 reduction under one atmosphere of CO2 ([CO2]=0.28m) is
calculated to be 0.66 sÀ1. Long-term CPE experiments (12 h)
(Table 1, entry 1) confirmed the successful CO2 reduction even
without H2O, but with low FEs to CO (3.2%) and HCOOH
(15.4%). Note that control experiments confirmed a lack of in-
cremental catalytic currents when either no CO2 or 5 was pres-
ent (Figure S9 in the Supporting Information).
expected, when more H2O (10%) or less 5 was present, the re-
duction of water to H2 became more favorable than CO2 reduc-
tion (Table 1, entries 3 and 4). It was reported that for Re– and
Mn–tricarbonyl complexes the presence of water not only
serves as a proton source to lower overpotentials for CO2 re-
duction, but also stabilizes the metal–CO2 intermediate
through protonation, thus facilitating the reduction of CO2.[6]
A
similar beneficial effect of water was also reported for the elec-
trocatalytic reduction of CO2 to formate with an Ir–dihydride
pincer complex.[9c] Kinetic studies showed that the catalytic
peak current, icat, varies linearly with [5] under one atmosphere
of CO2 and linearly with [CO2]0.5 with 1 mm of 5 (Figures S12
and S13 in the Supporting Information), which indicates that
the catalytic reaction is first order in both concentrations of 5
and CO2.[9c,d]
As reported previously, the presence of H2O (or some other
proton sources) is effective to further improve the catalytic
performance for CO2 reduction.[5,6] When the CV of 5 under
CO2 was recorded in CH3CN with increasing amounts of added
H2O, a gradual increase in catalytic current at À1.28 V (vs. SHE)
was observed (Figure S10a in the Supporting Information) and
icat reached a maximum of 1.25 mAcmÀ2 at 2–3% H2O, with an
onset for CO2 reduction appearing at approximately À1.15 V
(vs. SHE), corresponding to overpotentials of 0.629 and 0.549 V
for CO and HCOOH production, respectively, which is compara-
ble to most recently reported Ir–pincer[9c] and Mn–carbonyl
complexes.[6f–h] In contrast, there was no significant current en-
hancement under Ar at À1.28 V (vs. SHE) with added H2O up
to 3%, instead there was a significant contribution to the cur-
rent enhancement at more negative potentials, probably due
to the background water reduction (Figure S10b in the Sup-
porting Information). Diffusion-limited kinetic behavior was
also observed for CO2 reduction with 3% H2O added (Fig-
ure 2C, and Figure S11 in the Supporting Information), and
a much larger kcat of 4.44 sÀ1 was achieved. This value is com-
parable to that of polypyridyl-supported Ru complexes
(ꢀ5.1 sÀ1 with 10% H2O),[6i] but much lower than the value ob-
tained with Ir–dihydride pincer complex (20 sÀ1 with 5%
H2O).[9c] Controlled potential electrolysis experiments showed
that, with 1 mm of 5 and in the presence of 3% H2O, the aver-
age FEs for both CO and HCOOH production over a 12 hour re-
action were considerably higher than those in dry MeCN, with
negligible formation of H2 (Table 1, entry 2, and Figure 2D). As
Scheme 2 shows a plausible electrocatalytic reduction mech-
anism of CO2 reduction over 5. The irreversibility of the CV re-
sponse of 5 (i) at the first reduction potential is a bpy-based re-
duction pathway followed by a fast ligand-to-metal charge
transfer resulting in the ClÀ loss, which yields RuI species (ii)
(step (a)). The RuI species readily accepts an electron and
reacts with H+ to generate the neutral dihydride RuII species
(iii) (step (b)) followed by an insertion reaction of CO2 into one
of the RuÀH bonds of (iii) to give intermediate (v) (step (c))
under an applied potential. In another possible pathway, CO2
may insert into the RuÀH bond of RuI species (ii) directly to
give a neutral RuI species (iv) (step (b’)) under CO2-saturation
conditions and then undergoes a proton-coupled electron-
transfer process to form (v). Subsequently, bulk electrolysis at
À
the first reduction potential may generate HCO2 /HCO2H via
step (d). The CO formation may be a result of decarbonylation
from a metallocarboxylate intermediate (vi) through steps (e)–
(g).[6,14] The formation of intermediate (v) was supported by
a control experiment using complex 4 with the addition of
one equivalent of HCOOH under otherwise identical condi-
tions, which gave a similar activity and selectivity for CO2 re-
duction to that of 4 without the addition of HCOOH (Figur-
es S14 in the Supporting Information).
Further optimization of the electrolyte conditions was at-
tempted to improve the electrocatalytic performance of CO2
Table 1. Results of controlled potential electrolysis (CPE) experiments for 12 hours.[a]
Entry
Comments
E vs. SHE [V]
Charge passed [C]
FECO [%] (TON)[f]
FEHCOOH [%] (TON)[f]
FEH [%]
Total FE [%]
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
5 (1.0 mm) in MeCN/CO2
À1.28
À1.28
À1.28
À1.28
À1.75
À1.28
À1.28
À1.28
À1.28
34.8
57.9
10.9
58.2
75.1
67.0 (24 h)
10.7
7.3
38.5
3.2 (0.2)
60.7 (6.1)
20.3 (2.0)
60.9 (6.1)
36.4 (4.7)
72.7 (8.4)
n.d.
15.4 (0.9)
37.3 (4.2)
40.1 (7.5)
13.9 (1.4)
34.3 (4.5)
24.5 (2.8)
18.4 (0.3)
18.3 (0.5)
8.5 (0.3)
n.d.
<2.0
26.8
13.2
5.3
<3.0
35.4
n.d.
18.6
ꢀ100
87.2
88.0
76.0
ꢀ100
53.8
5 (1.0 mm) in MeCN (3% H2O)/CO2
5 (0.2 mm) in MeCN (3% H2O)/CO2
5 (1.0 mm) in MeCN (10% H2O)/CO2
5 (1.0 mm) in MeCN (3% H2O)/CO2
5 (1.0 mm) in MeCN (3% H2O)/CO2
MeCN (3% H2O)/CO2/used electrode[c]
MeCN/CO2/bare electrode[d]
MeCN (3% H2O)/CO2/bare electrode[e]
[b]
n.d.
n.d.
18.3
97.8
89.3
[a] Conditions: Carbon-paper electrode, 2.4 cm2, 1 atm CO2, 0.1m nBu4NPF6, 296.2 K. [b] A 1.2 cm2 carbon-paper electrode was used. [c] Electrode used for
entry 2 experiment was reused after thoroughly rising with acetonitrile and acetone, and recharged with fresh solution without 5 added. [d] Clean carbon
electrode was used without addition of 5 and H2O. [e] Clean carbon electrode was used without addition of 5. [f] The TON was calculated based on the
amount of 5 used. n.d.=not detectable. The FEs for CO and H2 are average values and that for HCOOH is a cumulative value during the electrolysis reac-
tion.
ChemPlusChem 2016, 81, 166 – 171
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