The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a key component of biological processes and energy technologies. This Review provides a comprehensive report of soluble molecular catalysts and electrocatalysts for the ORR. The precise synthetic control and relative ease of mechanistic study for homogeneous molecular catalysts, as compared to heterogeneous materials or surface-adsorbed species, enables a detailed understanding of the individual steps of ORR catalysis. Thus, the Review places particular emphasis on ORR mechanism and thermodynamics. First, the thermochemistry of oxygen reduction and the factors influencing ORR efficiency are described to contextualize the discussion of catalytic studies that follows. Reports of ORR catalysis are presented in terms of their mechanism, with separate sections for catalysis proceeding via initial outer- and inner-sphere electron transfer to O. The rates and selectivities (for production of HO vs HO) of these catalysts are provided, along with suggested methods for accurately comparing catalysts of different metals and ligand scaffolds that were examined under different experimental conditions.

Improved electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are critical for the advancement of fuel cell technologies. Herein, we report a series of 11 soluble iron porphyrin ORR electrocatalysts that possess turnover frequencies (TOFs) from 3 s–1 to an unprecedented value of 2.2 × 106 s–1. These TOFs correlate with the ORR overpotential, which can be modulated by changing the E1/2 of the catalyst using different ancillary ligands, by changing the solvent and solution acidity, and by changing the catalyst’s protonation state. The overpotential is well-defined for these homogeneous electrocatalysts by the E1/2 of the catalyst and the proton activity of the solution. This is the first such correlation for homogeneous ORR electrocatalysis, and it demonstrates that the remarkably fast TOFs are a consequence of high overpotential. The correlation with overpotential is surprising since the turnover limiting steps involve oxygen binding and protonation, as opposed to turnover limiting electron transfer commonly found in Tafel analysis of heterogeneous ORR materials. Computational studies show that the free energies for oxygen binding to the catalyst and for protonation of the superoxide complex are in general linearly related to the catalyst E1/2, and that this is the origin of the overpotential correlations. This analysis thus provides detailed understanding of the ORR barriers. The best catalysts involve partial decoupling of the influence of the second coordination sphere from the properties of the metal center, which is suggested as new molecular design strategy to avoid the limitations of the traditional scaling relationships for these catalysts.

Iron- and nitrogen-doped carbon (Fe-N-C) materials are leading candidates to replace platinum catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells; however, their active site structures remain poorly understood. A leading postulate is that the iron-containing active sites exist primarily in a pyridinic Fe-N4 ligation environment, yet, molecular model catalysts generally feature pyrrolic coordination. Herein, we report a molecular pyridinic hexaazacyclophane macrocycle, (phen2N2)Fe, and compare its spectroscopic, electrochemical, and catalytic properties for ORR to a typical Fe-N-C material and prototypical pyrrolic iron macrocycles. N 1s XPS and XAS signatures for (phen2N2)Fe are remarkably similar to those of Fe-N-C. Electrochemical studies reveal that (phen2N2)Fe has a relatively high Fe(III/II) potential with a correlated ORR onset potential within 150 mV of Fe-N-C. Unlike the pyrrolic macrocycles, (phen2N2)Fe displays excellent selectivity for four-electron ORR, comparable to Fe-N-C materials. The aggregate spectroscopic and electrochemical data demonstrate that (phen2N2)Fe is a more effective model of Fe-N-C active sites relative to the pyrrolic iron macrocycles, thereby establishing a new molecular platform that can aid understanding of this important class of catalytic materials.

A variety of next-generation energy processes utilize the electrochemical interconversions of dioxygen and water as the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Reported here are the first estimates of the standard reduction potential of the O2 + 4e(-) + 4H(+) ⇋ 2H2O couple in organic solvents. The values are +1.21 V in acetonitrile (MeCN) and +0.60 V in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), each versus the ferrocenium/ferrocene couple (Fc(+/0)) in the respective solvent (as are all of the potentials reported here). The potentials have been determined using a thermochemical cycle that combines the free energy for transferring water from aqueous solution to organic solvent, -0.43 kcal mol(-1) for MeCN and -1.47 kcal mol(-1) for DMF, and the potential of the H(+)/H2 couple, - 0.028 V in MeCN and -0.662 V in DMF. The H(+)/H2 couple in DMF has been directly measured electrochemically using the previously reported procedure for the MeCN value. The thermochemical approach used for the O2/H2O couple has been extended to the CO2/CO and CO2/CH4 couples to give values of -0.12 and +0.15 V in MeCN and -0.73 and -0.48 V in DMF, respectively. Extensions to other reduction potentials are discussed. Additionally, the free energy for transfer of protons from water to organic solvent is estimated as +14 kcal mol(-1) for acetonitrile and +0.6 kcal mol(-1) for DMF.

Facile and selective 4e/4H electrochemical reduction of O to HO in aqueous medium has been a sought-after goal for several decades. Elegant but synthetically demanding cytochrome c oxidase mimics have demonstrated selective 4e/4H electrochemical O reduction to HO is possible with rate constants as fast as 10 M s under heterogeneous conditions in aqueous media. Over the past few years, in situ mechanistic investigations on iron porphyrin complexes adsorbed on electrodes have revealed that the rate and selectivity of this multielectron and multiproton process is governed by the reactivity of a ferric hydroperoxide intermediate. The barrier of O-O bond cleavage determines the overall rate of O reduction and the site of protonation determines the selectivity. In this report, a series of mononuclear iron porphyrin complexes are rationally designed to achieve efficient O-O bond activation and site-selective proton transfer to effect facile and selective electrochemical reduction of O to water. Indeed, these crystallographically characterized complexes accomplish facile and selective reduction of O with rate constants >10 M s while retaining >95% selectivity when adsorbed on electrode surfaces (EPG) in water. These oxygen reduction reaction rate constants are 2 orders of magnitude faster than all known heme/Cu complexes and these complexes retain >90% selectivity even under rate determining electron transfer conditions that generally can only be achieved by installing additional redox active groups in the catalyst.

Improving molecular catalysis for important electrochemical proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) reactions, such as the interconversions of H/H, O/HO, CO/CO, and N/NH, is an ongoing challenge. Synthetic modifications to the molecular catalysts are valuable but often show trade-offs between turnover frequency (TOF) and the effective overpotential required to initiate catalysis (η). Herein, we derive a new approach for improving efficiencies-higher TOF at lower η-by changing the concentrations and properties of the reactants and products, rather than by modifying the catalyst. The dependence of TOF on η is shown to be quite different upon changing, for instance, the pK of the acid HA versus the concentration or partial pressure of a reactant or product. Using the electrochemical reduction of dioxygen catalyzed by iron porphyrins in DMF as an example, decreasing [HA] 10-fold lowers η by 59 mV and decreases the TOF by a factor of 10. Alternatively, a 10-fold decrease in K(HA) also lowers η by 59 mV but only decreases the TOF by a factor of 2. This approach has been used to improve a catalytic TOF by 10 vs the previously reported scaling relationship developed via synthetic modifications to the catalyst. The analysis has the potential to predict improved efficiency and product selectivity of any molecular PCET catalyst, based on its mechanism and rate law.

A series of mononuclear pseudomacrocyclic cobalt complexes have been investigated as catalysts for O reduction. Each of these complexes, with Co reduction potentials that span nearly 400 mV, mediate highly selective two-electron reduction of O to HO (93-99%) using decamethylferrocene (Fc*) as the reductant and acetic acid as the proton source. Kinetic studies reveal that the rate exhibits a first-order dependence on [Co] and [AcOH], but no dependence on [O] or [Fc*]. A linear correlation is observed between log(TOF) vs E(Co) for the different cobalt complexes (TOF = turnover frequency). The thermodynamic potential for O reduction to HO was estimated by measuring the H/H open-circuit potential under the reaction conditions. This value provides the basis for direct assessment of the thermodynamic efficiency of the different catalysts and shows that HO is formed with overpotentials as low as 90 mV. These results are compared with a recently reported series of Fe-porphyrin complexes, which catalyze four-electron reduction of O to HO. The data show that the TOFs of the Co complexes exhibit a shallower dependence on E(M) than the Fe complexes. This behavior, which underlies the low overpotential, is rationalized on the basis of the catalytic rate law.

The catalytic reduction of O2 to H2O is important for energy transduction in both synthetic and natural systems. Herein, we report a kinetic and thermochemical study of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyzed by iron tetraphenylporphyrin (Fe(TPP)) in N,N′-dimethylformamide using decamethyl-ferrocene as a soluble reductant and para-toluenesulfonic acid (pTsOH) as the proton source. This work identifies and characterizes catalytic intermediates and their thermochemistry, providing a detailed mechanistic understanding of the system. Specifically, reduction of the ferric porphyrin, [FeIII(TPP)]+, forms the ferrous porphyrin, FeII(TPP), which binds O2 reversibly to form the ferric-superoxide porphyrin complex, FeIII(TPP)((O2•−). The temperature dependence of both the electron transfer and O2 binding equilibrium constants has been determined. Kinetic studies over a range of concentrations and temperatures show that the catalyst resting state changes during the course of each catalytic run, necessitating the use of global kinetic modeling to extract rate constants and kinetic barriers. The rate-determining step in oxygen reduction is the protonation of FeIII(TPP)((O2•−) by pTsOH, which proceeds with a substantial kinetic barrier. Computational studies indicate that this barrier for proton transfer arises from an unfavorable preassociation of the proton donor with the superoxide adduct and a transition state that requires significant desolvation of the proton donor. Together, these results are the first example of oxygen reduction by iron tetraphenylporphyrin where the pre-equilibria among ferric, ferrous, and ferric-superoxide intermediates have been quantified under catalytic conditions. This work gives a generalizable model for the mechanism of iron porphyrin-catalyzed ORR and provides an unusually complete mechanistic study of an ORR reaction. More broadly, this study also highlights the kinetic challenges for proton transfer to catalytic intermediates in organic media.