title: Frustrated Solvation Structures Can Enhance Electron Transfer Rates.
abstract: Polar surfaces can interact strongly with nearby water molecules, leading to the formation of highly ordered interfacial hydration structures. This ordering can lead to frustration in the hydrogen bond network, and, in the presence of solutes, frustrated hydration structures. We study frustration in the hydration of cations when confined between sheets of the water oxidation catalyst manganese dioxide. Frustrated hydration structures are shown to have profound effects on ion-surface electron transfer through the enhancement of energy gap fluctuations beyond those expected from Marcus theory. These fluctuations are accompanied by a concomitant increase in the electron transfer rate in Marcus's normal regime. We demonstrate the generality of this phenomenon-enhancement of energy gap fluctuations due to frustration-by introducing a charge frustrated XY model, likening the hydration structure of confined cations to topological defects. Our findings shed light on recent experiments suggesting that water oxidation rates depend on the cation charge and Mn-oxidation state in these layered transition metal oxide materials.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Computational Molecular Science, ‡Department of Chemistry, and §Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials, Temple University , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States.
authors.forename: Richard C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Remsing
authors.affiliation: Institute for Computational Molecular Science, ‡Department of Chemistry, and §Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials, Temple University , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States.
authors.forename: Ian G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: McKendry
authors.affiliation: Institute for Computational Molecular Science, ‡Department of Chemistry, and §Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials, Temple University , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States.
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Strongin
authors.affiliation: Institute for Computational Molecular Science, ‡Department of Chemistry, and §Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials, Temple University , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States.
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.affiliation: Institute for Computational Molecular Science, ‡Department of Chemistry, and §Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials, Temple University , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zdilla
keywords: Marcus theory; XY model; birnessite; catalysis; confinement; fluctuations; quenched disorder