Extended investigation of electrocatalytic generation of dihydrogen using [(mu-1,2-benzenedithiolato)][Fe(CO)3]2 has revealed that weak acids, such as acetic acid, can be used. The catalytic reduction producing dihydrogen occurs at approximately -2 V for several carboxylic acids and phenols resulting in overpotentials of only -0.44 to -0.71 V depending on the weak acid used. This unusual catalytic reduction occurs at a potential at which the starting material, in the absence of a proton source, does not show a reduction peak. The mechanism for this process and structures for the intermediates have been discerned by electrochemical and computational analysis. These studies reveal that the catalyst is the monoanion of the starting material and an ECEC mechanism occurs.

Voltammetry is widely used for the evaluation of iron-only hydrogenase mimics and other potential catalysts for hydrogen generation using various dipolar aprotic solvents. Effective catalysts show enhanced current in the presence of a proton donor at the potential where the catalyst is reduced. To facilitate the comparison of catalytic efficiencies, this paper provides a simple means of calculating the standard potential for reduction of the acid, HA, according to the half reaction 2HA + 2e- <==> H2 + 2A-. This standard potential depends on the pKa of HA in the solvent being used. It is thermodynamically impossible for reduction of HA to occur at less negative potentials than the standard potential, and the most effective catalysts will operate at potentials as close as possible to the standard potential. In addition, direct reduction of HA at the electrode will compete with the catalyzed reduction, thus complicating evaluation of the rate of the catalyzed reaction. Glassy carbon electrodes, commonly used in such evaluations, show a quite large overpotential for direct reduction of HA so that the necessary corrections are small. However, catalysis at very negative potentials will be contaminated by significant direct reduction of HA at glassy carbon. It is demonstrated that direct reduction can be almost completely suppressed by using a mercury or amalgamated gold electrode, even at very negative potentials.

Hydrogen is the most promising fuel of the future owing to its carbon-free, high-energy content and potential to be efficiently converted into either electrical or thermal energy. The greatest technical barrier to accessing this renewable resource remains the inability to create inexpensive catalysts for the solar-driven oxidation of water. To date, the most efficient system that uses solar energy to oxidize water is the photosystem II water-oxidizing complex (PSII-WOC), which is found within naturally occurring photosynthetic organisms. The catalytic core of this enzyme is a CaMn(4)O(x) cluster, which is present in all known species of oxygenic phototrophs and has been conserved since the emergence of this type of photosynthesis about 2.5 billion years ago. The key features that facilitate the catalytic success of the PSII-WOC offer important lessons for the design of abiological water oxidation catalysts. In this Account, we examine the chemical principles that may govern the PSII-WOC by comparing the water oxidation capabilities of structurally related synthetic manganese-oxo complexes, particularly those with a cubical Mn(4)O(4) core ("cubanes"). We summarize this research, from the self-assembly of the first such clusters, through the elucidation of their mechanism of photoinduced rearrangement to release O(2), to recent advances highlighting their capability to catalyze sustained light-activated electrolysis of water. The [Mn(4)O(4)](6+) cubane core assembles spontaneously in solution from monomeric precursors or from [Mn(2)O(2)](3+) core complexes in the presence of metrically appropriate bidentate chelates, for example, diarylphosphinates (ligands of Ph(2)PO(2)(-) and 4-phenyl-substituted derivatives), which bridge pairs of Mn atoms on each cube face (Mn(4)O(4)L(6)). The [Mn(4)O(4)](6+) core is enlarged relative to the [Mn(2)O(2)](3+) core, resulting in considerably weaker Mn-O bonds. Cubanes are ferocious oxidizing agents, stronger than analogous complexes with the [Mn(2)O(2)](3+) core, as demonstrated both by the range of substrates they dehydrogenate or oxygenate (unactivated alkanes, for example) and the 25% larger O-H bond enthalpy of the resulting mu(3)-OH bridge. The cubane core topology is structurally suited to releasing O(2), and it does so in high yield upon removal of one phosphinate by photoexcitation in the gas phase or thermal excitation in the solid state. This is quite unlike other Mn-oxo complexes and can be attributed to the elongated Mn-O bond lengths and low-energy transition state to the mu-peroxo precursor. The photoproduct, [Mn(4)O(2)L(5)](+), an intact nonplanar butterfly core complex, is poised for oxidative regeneration of the cubane core upon binding of two water molecules and coupling to an anode. Catalytic evolution of O(2) and protons from water exceeding 1000 turnovers can be readily achieved by suspending the oxidized cubane, [Mn(4)O(4)L(6)](+), into a proton-conducting membrane (Nafion) preadsorbed onto a conducting electrode and electroxidizing the photoreduced butterfly...

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The one- to two-electron reduction of mu-(1,2-ethanedithiolato)diironhexacarbonyl that has been observed under electrochemical conditions is dependent on scan rate and temperature, suggesting activation of a structural rearrangement. This structural rearrangement is attributed to fluxionality of the [2Fe2S] core in the initially formed anion. Computations support this assessment. Upon an initial one-electron reduction, the inherent fluxionality of the [2Fe2S] complex anion allows for a second one-electron reduction at a less negative potential to form a dianionic species. The structure of this dianion is characterized by a rotated iron center, a bridging carbonyl ligand, and, most significantly, a dissociated Fe-S bond. This fluxionality of the [2Fe2S] core upon reduction has direct implications for the chemistry of [FeFe]-hydrogenase mimics and for iron-sulfur cluster chemistry in general.