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Nanostructured Manganese Oxides as Highly Active Water Oxidation Catalysts: A Boost from Manganese Precursor Chemistry
Author(s) -
Menezes Prashanth W.,
Indra Arindam,
Littlewood Patrick,
Schwarze Michael,
Göbel Caren,
Schomäcker Reinhard,
Driess Matthias
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201402169
Subject(s) - manganese , catalysis , chemistry , inorganic chemistry , oxidizing agent , bixbyite , cerium , photocatalysis , ferrihydrite , redox , oxide , organic chemistry , adsorption
We present a facile synthesis of bioinspired manganese oxides for chemical and photocatalytic water oxidation, starting from a reliable and versatile manganese(II) oxalate single‐source precursor (SSP) accessible through an inverse micellar molecular approach. Strikingly, thermal decomposition of the latter precursor in various environments (air, nitrogen, and vacuum) led to the three different mineral phases of bixbyite (Mn 2 O 3 ), hausmannite (Mn 3 O 4 ), and manganosite (MnO). Initial chemical water oxidation experiments using ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) gave the maximum catalytic activity for Mn 2 O 3 and MnO whereas Mn 3 O 4 had a limited activity. The substantial increase in the catalytic activity of MnO in chemical water oxidation was demonstrated by the fact that a phase transformation occurs at the surface from nanocrystalline MnO into an amorphous MnO x (1< x <2) upon treatment with CAN, which acted as an oxidizing agent. Photocatalytic water oxidation in the presence of [Ru(bpy) 3 ] 2+ (bpy=2,2 ′‐ bipyridine) as a sensitizer and peroxodisulfate as an electron acceptor was carried out for all three manganese oxides including the newly formed amorphous MnO x . Both Mn 2 O 3 and the amorphous MnO x exhibit tremendous enhancement in oxygen evolution during photocatalysis and are much higher in comparison to so far known bioinspired manganese oxides and calcium–manganese oxides. Also, for the first time, a new approach for the representation of activities of water oxidation catalysts has been proposed by determining the amount of accessible manganese centers.