Fluorophore Metal–Organic Complexes: High-Throughput Optical Screening for Aprotic Electrochemical Systems

Abstract

Combinatorial optical screening of aprotic electrocatalysts has not yet been achieved primarily due to H-associated mechanisms of fluorophore modulation. We have overcome this problem by using fluorophore metal-organic complexes. In particular, eosin Y and quinine can be coordinated with various metallic cations (e.g., Li, Na, Mg, Zn, and Al) in aprotic solvents, triggering changes in their fluorescent properties. These interactions have been used in a reliable screening method to determine oxygen reduction/evolution reaction activities of 100 Mn-based binary catalysts for the aprotic Li-air battery.

Electrochemical Screening of Au/Pt Catalysts for the Thermocatalytic Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide Based on Their Oxygen Reduction and Hydrogen Oxidation Activities Probed via Voltammetric Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy

“…The next step for optimizing the search for H 2 O 2 catalysts would be to use electrochemical combinatorial screening methods that evaluate the HOR and ORR in a single apparatus. Optical screening, − multielectrode half-cell, − and bipolar electrode array system − are a few examples among the burgeoning techniques researchers have developed to explore the activities of multiple compositions simultaneously, primarily for the ORR. However, optical and fluorescence-based methods do not typically provide the quantitative electrochemical information required (e.g., kinetics of charge transfer) to characterize a system such as the thermocatalytic production of H 2 O 2 described above.…”