Investigation of Amorphous Manganese Oxide as a Water Oxidation Catalyst for Artificial Photosynthetic Systems
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Date
2010-06
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
In the context of photochemical conversion of water to hydrogen and oxygen, there is a need for catalysts which will effectively support the oxidation of water. Although ruthenium oxide and iridium oxide are well known water oxidation catalysts, it is desirable to develop catalysts based on Earth abundant metals. In nature, photosystem II relies on manganese for the oxidation of water. A study of amorphous manganese oxide as a water oxidation catalyst is reported here. Amorphous manganese oxide is found to exhibit novel behavior in this role. Oxygen evolution in aqueous suspensions of amorphous manganese oxide is observed to be the result of at least two mechanisms, at least one of which does not depend on the absorption of light. A positive correlation is observed between the average oxidation state of manganese in the material and the rate of oxygen evolution. Aqueous suspensions of amorphous manganese oxide are shown to evolve oxygen at a faster rate than previously studied catalysts within the screening system. This study demonstrates that amorphous manganese is a promising catalyst for water oxidation in artificial photosynthetic systems.
Description
A presentation of this work was named a winner of the Meek Undergraduate Poster Session in 2009.
Keywords
Photosynthesis, Amorphous Manganese Oxide, Transition metal oxides, Photocatalysis, Chemistry, Materials Science