Defect Engineering of WO3 by Rapid Flame Reduction for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Conversion of Methane into Liquid Oxygenates.

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) conversion is a promising way to use methane (CH4) as a chemical building block without harsh conditions. However, the PEC conversion of CH4 to value-added chemicals remains challenging due to the thermodynamically favorable overoxidation of CH4. Here, we report WO3 nanotube (NT) photoelectrocatalysts for PEC CH4 conversion with high liquid product selectivity through defect engineering. By tuning the flame reduction treatment, we carefully controlled the oxygen vacancies of WO3 NTs. The optimally reduced WO3 NTs suppressed overoxidation of CH4 showing a high total C1 liquid selectivity of 69.4% and a production rate of 0.174 µmol cm-2 h-1. Scanning electrochemical microscopy revealed that oxygen vacancies can restrain the production of hydroxyl radicals, which, in excess, could further oxidize C1 intermediates to CO2. Additionally, band diagram analysis and computational studies elucidated that oxygen vacancies thermodynamically suppress overoxidation. This work introduces a strategy for understanding and controlling the selectivity of photoelectrocatalysts for direct conversion of CH4 to liquids.

Analytical and Parameter-Free Hückel Theory Made Possible for Symmetric Hx Clusters.

It is widely accepted that energetics of chemical bond breaking and formation can be described with simple mathematical forms only at the expense of extensive parameterization. In this work, the discovery of a simple tight-binding-type mathematical framework that can accurately predict the relative energetics of regular Hx polygons (2 ≤ x ≤ 15) in the ground states with their respective spin multiplicities using no parameters has been reported. The framework recasts Hückel theory in a density functional theory form by making use of Anderson and Adams-Gilbert theories of localized orbitals. For the systems examined, the method exhibits mean absolute errors of ∼0.02 Å (edge lengths) and ∼0.15 eV/atom (energy minima) relative to correlated-electron quantum chemistry calculations. Its accuracy is found to be comparable to the generalized gradient approximation and superior to standard parameterized tight binding and reactive potentials applied to Hx structures. Generalization of the theoretical framework to systems of many-electron atoms is presented, along with the comparison of the method to existing semiempirical tight binding and bond order potential approaches.

Electrochemical recycling of homogeneous catalysts.

Homogeneous catalysts have rapid kinetics and keen reaction selectivity. However, their widespread use for industrial catalysis has remained limited because of challenges in reusability. Here, we propose a redox-mediated electrochemical approach for catalyst recycling using metallopolymer-functionalized electrodes for binding and release. The redox platform was investigated for the separation of key platinum and palladium homogeneous catalysts used in organic synthesis and industrial chemical manufacturing. Noble metal catalysts for hydrosilylation, silane etherification, Suzuki cross-coupling, and Wacker oxidation were recycled electrochemically. The redox electrodes demonstrated high sorption uptake for platinum-based catalysts (Qmax up to 200 milligrams of platinum per gram of adsorbent) from product mixtures, with up to 99.5% recovery, while retaining full catalytic activity over multiple cycles. The combination of mechanistic studies and electronic structure calculations indicate that selective interactions with anionic intermediates during the catalytic cycle played a key role in the separations. Last, continuous flow cell studies support the scalability and favorable technoeconomics of electrochemical recycling.

Toward a Multipathway Perspective: pH-Dependent Kinetic Selection of Competing Pathways and the Role of the Internal Glutamate in Cl-/H+ Antiporters.

Canonical descriptions of multistep biomolecular transformations generally follow a single-pathway viewpoint, with a series of transitions through intermediates converting reactants to products or repeating a conformational cycle. However, mounting evidence suggests that more complexity and pathway heterogeneity are mechanistically relevant due to the statistical distribution of multiple interconnected rate processes. Making sense of such pathway complexity remains a significant challenge. To better understand the role and relevance of pathway heterogeneity, we herein probe the chemical reaction network of a Cl-/H+ antiporter, ClC-ec1, and analyze reaction pathways using multiscale kinetic modeling (MKM). This approach allows us to describe the nature of the competing pathways and how they change as a function of pH. We reveal that although pH-dependent Cl-/H+ transport rates are largely regulated by the charge state of amino acid E148, the charge state of E203 determines relative contributions from coexisting pathways and can shift the flux pH-dependence. The selection of pathways via E203 explains how ionizable mutations (D/H/K/R) would impact the ClC-ec1 bioactivity from a kinetic perspective and lends further support to the indispensability of an internal glutamate in ClC antiporters. Our results demonstrate how quantifying the kinetic selection of competing pathways under varying conditions leads to a deeper understanding of the Cl-/H+ exchange mechanism and can suggest new approaches for mechanistic control.

Density Functional Theory-Based Quantum Mechanics/Coarse-Grained Molecular Mechanics: Theory and Implementation.

Quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) is a standard computational tool for describing chemical reactivity in systems with many degrees of freedom, including polymers, enzymes, and reacting molecules in complex solvents. However, QM/MM is less suitable for systems with complex MM dynamics due to associated long relaxation times, the high computational cost of QM energy evaluations, and expensive long-range electrostatics. Recently, a systematic coarse graining of the MM part was proposed to overcome these QM/MM limitations in the form of the quantum mechanics/coarse-grained molecular mechanics (QM/CG-MM) approach. Herein, we recast QM/CG-MM in the density functional theory formalism and, by employing the force-matching variational principle, assess the method performance for the two model systems: QM CCl4 in the MM CCl4 liquid and the reaction of tert-butyl hypochlorite with the benzyl radical in the MM CCl4 solvent. We find that density functional theory (DFT)-QM/CG-MM accurately reproduces DFT-QM/MM radial distribution functions and three-body correlations between the QM and CG-MM subsystems. The free-energy profile of the reaction is also described well, with an error <1-2 kcal/mol. DFT-QM/CG-MM is a general, systematic, and computationally efficient approach to include chemical reactivity in coarse-grained molecular models.

Scaling relationships and theory for vibrational frequencies of adsorbates on transition metal surfaces.

Adsorbate vibrational excitations are an important fingerprint of molecule/surface interactions, affecting temperature contributions to the free energy and impacting reaction rate and equilibrium constants. Furthermore, vibrational spectra aid in identifying species and adsorption sites present in experimental studies. Despite their importance, knowledge of how adsorbate frequencies scale across materials is lacking. Here, by combining previously reported experimental data and our own density-functional theory calculations, we reveal linear correlations between vibrational frequencies of adsorbates on transition metal surfaces. Through effective-medium theory, linear muffin-tin orbital theory, and the d-band model, we rationalize the squares of the frequencies to be fundamentally linear in their scaling across transition metal surfaces. We identify the adsorbate-binding energy as a descriptor for certain molecular vibrations and rigorously relate errors in frequencies to errors in adsorption energies. We also discuss the impact of scaling on surface thermochemistry and adsorbate coverage.

Insights into the Ring-Opening of Biomass-Derived Furanics over Carbon-Supported Ruthenium.

The selective ring-opening of cellulose-derived furanic molecules is a promising pathway for the production of industrially relevant linear oxygenates, such as 1,6-hexanediol. 2,5-Dimethylfuran (DMF) is employed as a model compound in a combined experimental and computational investigation to provide insights into the metal-catalyzed ring-opening. Ring-opening to 2-hexanol and 2-hexanone and ring-saturation to 2,5-dimethyltetrahydrofuran (DMTHF) are identified as two main parallel pathways. DFT calculations and microkinetic modeling indicate that DMF adsorbs on Ru in an open-ring configuration, which is potentially a common surface intermediate that leads to both ring-opening and ring-saturation products. Although the activation barriers for the two pathways are comparable, the formation of DMTHF is more thermodynamically favorable. In addition, steric interactions with co-adsorbed 2-propoxyl, derived from the solvent, and the oxophilic nature of Ru play key roles to determine the product distribution: the former favors less bulky, that is, ring-closed, intermediates, and the latter retards O-H bond formation. Finally, we show that the hydrodeoxygenation of oxygenated furanics, such as 5-methylfurfural and (5-methyl-2-furyl)methanol, on Ru occurs preferentially at oxygen-containing side groups to form DMF, followed by either ring-opening or ring-saturation.

Conjugation-Driven "Reverse Mars-van Krevelen"-Type Radical Mechanism for Low-Temperature C-O Bond Activation.

C-O bond activation on monofunctional catalysts (metals, carbides, and oxides) is challenging due to activity constraints imposed by energy scaling relationships. Yet, contrary to predictions, recently discovered multifunctional metal/metal oxide catalysts (e.g., Rh/ReOx, Rh/MoOx, Ir/VOx) demonstrate unusually high C-O scission activity at moderate temperatures. Herein, we use extensive density functional theory calculations, first-principles microkinetic modeling, and electronic structure analysis to elucidate the metal/metal oxide synergy in the Ru/RuO2 catalyst, which enables up to 76% yield of the C-O scission product (2-methyl furan) in catalytic transfer hydrogenolysis of furfural at low temperatures. Our key mechanistic finding is a facile radical-mediated C-O bond activation on RuO2 oxygen vacancies, which directly leads to a weakly bound final product. This is the first time the radical reduction mechanism is reported in heterogeneous catalysis at temperatures <200 °C. We attribute the unique catalytic properties to the formation of a conjugation-stabilized furfuryl radical upon C-O bond scission, the strong hydroxyl affinity of oxygen vacancies due to the metallic character of RuO2, and the acid-base heterogeneity of the oxide surface. The conjugation-driven radical-assisted C-O bond scission applies to any catalytic surface that preserves the π-electron system of the reactant and leads to C-O selectivity enhancement, with notable examples including Cu, H-covered Pd, self-assembled monolayers on Pd, and oxygen-covered Mo2C. Furthermore, we reveal the cooperativity of active sites in multifunctional catalysts. The mechanism is fully consistent with kinetic studies and isotopic labeling experiments, and the insights gained might prove useful more broadly in overcoming activity constraints induced by energy scaling relationships.