Hydrogen from water by electro- and photoelectrocatalysis of a cobalt porphyrin on a gold surface

MIGUEL ANGEL MORALES VÁSQUEZ; FABIO DOCTOROVICH

Queretaro

Congreso; LABIC 2016; 2016

Cinvestav

Rupture of water into its elements, H2 and O2, may be considered as a proposal for energy storage as stable chemical bonds still reactive. Once obtained, H2 can be used in fuel cells as a clean and sustainable way possible to meet the growing global need for energy 1. This requires a catalyst, which must be practical, affordable, fast operation (ie, big TOF, TurnOver Frequency), perform catalysis at low overpotential, and have high values of TON (TurnOver Number). A cobalt porphyrin was immobilized on a gold surface, and tested as a catalyst for water reduction, For the development of this study, the modified electrode [Co-P] ?Auº is used, the working conditions were: buffer pH=3, reference electrode Agº/AgCl and platinum counter electrode. The results obtained are shown in Table 1, note the high TON values. An amperometry was performed in the presence and absence of light -600mV vs. Agº/AgCl. The red line in Figure 1 shows the amperometry performed without light, note that the increase in the current is small (Δi≈10 uA) compared to the one made with light (Δi≈55 uA). In summary, a cobalt porphyrin immobilized on gold is a very robust and efficient electro- and photoelectrocatalyst for H2 production from water.