Issue 17, 2022

Photoelectrochemical water oxidation improved by pyridine N-oxide as a mimic of tyrosine-Z in photosystem II

Abstract

Artificial photosynthesis provides a way to store solar energy in chemical bonds with water oxidation as a major challenge for creating highly efficient and robust photoanodes that mimic photosystem II. We report here an easily available pyridine N-oxide (PNO) derivative as an efficient electron transfer relay between an organic light absorber and molecular water oxidation catalyst on a nanoparticle TiO2 photoanode. Spectroscopic and kinetic studies revealed that the PNO/PNO+˙ couple closely mimics the redox behavior of the tyrosine/tyrosyl radical pair in PSII in improving light-driven charge separation via multi-step electron transfer. The integrated photoanode exhibited a 1 sun current density of 3 mA cm−2 in the presence of Na2SO3 and a highly stable photocurrent density of >0.5 mA cm−2 at 0.4 V vs. NHE over a period of 1 h for water oxidation at pH 7. The performance shown here is superior to those of previously reported organic dye-based photoanodes in terms of photocurrent and stability.

Graphical abstract: Photoelectrochemical water oxidation improved by pyridine N-oxide as a mimic of tyrosine-Z in photosystem II

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
24 jan 2022
Accepted
31 mar 2022
First published
01 apr 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 4955-4961

Photoelectrochemical water oxidation improved by pyridine N-oxide as a mimic of tyrosine-Z in photosystem II

Y. Zhu, G. Liu, R. Zhao, H. Gao, X. Li, L. Sun and F. Li, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 4955 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC00443G

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