Regulating Steric Effect of Cobalt Corroles for Promoted Oxygen Electrocatalysis
Yuhan Xu, Xiaotong Jin, Jieling Zhang, Haonan Qin, Benxing Mei, Tao Liu, Siyu Lei, Li Shen, Yongyi Bo, Xialiang Li, Rui Cao
Abstract
Regulating catalyst steric effects is commonly used in organic chemistry but is relatively much less explored in O 2 activation. Herein, we report on the steric effect of Co corroles on O 2 reduction. Three Co corroles with different meso -substituents to regulate steric effects were synthesized. With bulky meso -substituents, Co corroles became more efficient, from both thermodynamic and kinetic points of view, to bind and activate O 2 . We confirmed that upon O 2 binding, the resulted superoxo unit can be stabilized due to the steric protection of bulky meso -substituents. With this improvement, Co corrole with bulky meso -substituents displayed significantly improved oxygen electrocatalysis.