Organic molecules offer cheaper path to making clean fuels from sunlight
Researchers have developed small organic compounds that can replace expensive metals in devices that convert sunlight into hydrogen fuel and capture carbon dioxide. The breakthrough could lower the cost of solar fuel technology and accelerate its commercial deployment across industries seeking to decarbonize.
Originaltitel: Small Organic Molecular Electrocatalysts for Fuels Production
<p>In recent years, heterocyclic organic compounds have been explored as molecular electrocatalysts in relevant reactions for energy conversion and storage. Merging mimetics of biological systems that perform hydride transfer with rational synthetic chemical design has opened many opportunities for organic molecules to be tuned at the atomic level conferring them interesting reactivities. These molecular electrocatalysts represent an alternative to traditional metallic materials and metal complexes employed for water oxidation, hydrogen production, and carbon dioxide reduction. This minireview describes recent reports concerning design, catalytic activity and the mechanism of synthetic molecular electrocatalysts towards solar fuels production.</p>