Theoretical Insight into the Performance of MnII/III-Monosubstituted Heteropolytungstates as Water Oxidation Catalysts.

ABSTRACT

The performance of MnII/III-monosubstituted heteropolytungstates [MnIII(H2O)GeW11O39]5- ([GT-MnIII-OH2]5-, where GT = GeW11O39) and [MnII(H2O)GeW11O39]6- ([GT-MnII-OH2]6-) as water oxidation catalysts at pH 9 was explored using density functional theory calculations. The counterion effect was fully considered, in which five and six Na+ ions were included in the calculations for water oxidation catalyzed by [GT-MnIII-OH2]5- and [GT-MnII-OH2]6-, respectively. The process of water oxidation catalysis was divided into three elemental stages (i) oxidative activation, (ii) O-O bond formation, and (iii) O2 evolution. In the oxidative activation stage, two electrons and two protons are removed from [Na5-GT-MnIII-OH2] and three electrons and two protons are removed from [Na6-GT-MnII-OH2]. Therefore, the MnIV-O• species [Na5-GT-MnIV-O•] is obtained. Two mechanisms, (i) water nucleophilic attack and (ii) oxo-oxo coupling, were demonstrated to be competitive in O-O bond formation triggered from [Na5-GT-MnIV-O•]. In the last stage, the O2 molecule could be readily evolved from the peroxo or dinuclear species and the catalyst returns to the ground state after the coordination of a water molecule(s).