Chemists Develop New Way To Split Water

Photocatalytic process enables water to be activated.

Hydrogen is often touted as a future energy solution, especially when generated through environmentally friendly methods. Beyond its energy potential, hydrogen plays a crucial role in producing active ingredients and various essential compounds. To generate hydrogen, water (H2O) can be transformed into hydrogen gas (H2) through a sequence of chemical reactions.

However, as water molecules are very stable, splitting them into hydrogen and oxygen presents a big challenge to chemists. For it to succeed at all, the water first has to be activated using a catalyst – then it reacts more easily.

A team of researchers led by Prof. Armido Studer at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at Münster University (Germany) has developed a photocatalytic process in which water, under mild reaction conditions, is activated through triaryl phosphines and not, as in most other processes, through transition metal complexes.

This strategy, which was recently published in the journal Nature, will open a new door in the highly active field of research relating to radical chemistry, says the team. Radicals are, as a rule, highly reactive intermediates. The team uses a special intermediate – a phosphine-water radical cation – as activated water, from which hydrogen atoms from H2O can be easily split off and transferred to a further substrate.

The reaction is driven by light energy. “Our system,” says Armido Studer, “offers an ideal platform for investigating unresearched chemical processes that use the hydrogen atom as a reagent in synthesis.”

Dr. Christian Mück-Lichtenfeld, who analyzed the activated water complexes using theoretical methods, says, “The hydrogen-oxygen bond in this intermediate is extraordinarily weak, making it possible to transfer a hydrogen atom to various compounds.” Dr. Jingjing Zhang, who carried out the experimental work, adds: “The hydrogen atoms of the activated water can be transferred to alkenes and arenes under very mild conditions, in so-called hydrogenation reactions.”

Hydrogenation reactions are enormously important in pharmaceutical research, in the agrochemical industry, and in materials sciences.

Reference: “Photocatalytic phosphine-mediated water activation for radical hydrogenation” by Jingjing Zhang, Christian Mück-Lichtenfeld and Armido Studer, 28 June 2023, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06141-1

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