title: Synthesis and catalytic water oxidation activities of ruthenium complexes containing neutral ligands.
abstract: Two dinuclear and one mononuclear ruthenium complexes containing neutral polypyridyl ligands have been synthesised as pre-water oxidation catalysts and characterised by (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy and ESI-MS. Their catalytic water oxidation properties in the presence of [Ce(NH(4))(2)(NO(3))(6)] (Ce(IV)) as oxidant at pH 1.0 have been investigated. At low concentrations of Ce(IV) (5 mM), high turnover numbers of up to 4500 have been achieved. An (18)O-labelling experiment established that both O atoms in the evolved O(2) originate from water. Combined electrochemical study and electrospray ionisation mass spectrometric analysis suggest that ligand exchange between coordinated 4-picoline and free water produces Ru aquo species as the real water oxidation catalysts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Yunhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Lele
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Torbjörn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Åkermark
authors.forename: Lianpeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Bao-Lin
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Åkermark
authors.forename: Licheng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun