Second-Sphere Hydrogen-Bond Donors and Acceptors Affect the Rate and Selectivity of Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction by Iron Porphyrins Differently

The factors that control the rate and selectivity of 4e^-/4H⁺O₂reduction are important for efficient energy transformation as well as for understanding the terminal step of respiration in aerobic organisms. Inspired by the design of naturally occurring enzymes which are efficient catalysts for O₂and H₂O₂reduction, several artificial systems have been generated where different second-sphere residues have been installed to enhance the rate and efficiency of the 4e^-/4H⁺O₂reduction. These include hydrogen-bonding residues like amines, carboxylates, ethers, amides, phenols, etc. In some cases, improvements in the catalysis were recorded, whereas in some cases improvements were marginal or nonexistent. In this work, we use an iron porphyrin complex with pendant 1,10-phenanthroline residues which show a pH-dependent variation of the rate of the electrochemical O₂reduction reaction (ORR) over 2 orders of magnitude. In-situ surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy reveals the presence of different intermediates at different pH's reflecting different rate-determining steps at different pH's. These data in conjunction with density functional theory calculations reveal that when the distal 1,10-phenanthroline is neutral it acts as a hydrogen-bond acceptor which stabilizes H₂O (product) binding to the active Fe^IIstate and retards the reaction. However, when the 1,10-phenanthroline is protonated, it acts as a hydrogen-bond donor which enhances O₂reduction by stabilizing Fe^III-O₂^.-and Fe^III-OOH intermediates and activating the O-O bond for cleavage. On the basis of these data, general guidelines for controlling the different possible rate-determining steps in the complex multistep 4e^-/4H⁺ORR are developed and a bioinspired principle-based design of an efficient electrochemical ORR is presented.