High turnover photocatalytic hydrogen formation with an Fe(III) N-heterocyclic carbene photosensitiser

Jesper Schwarz; Aleksandra Ilic; Catherine Johnson; Reiner Lomoth; Kenneth Wärnmark

doi:10.1039/d2cc01016j

High turnover photocatalytic hydrogen formation with an Fe(III) N-heterocyclic carbene photosensitiser

Chem Commun (Camb). 2022 Apr 28;58(35):5351-5354. doi: 10.1039/d2cc01016j.

Authors

Jesper Schwarz¹, Aleksandra Ilic¹, Catherine Johnson², Reiner Lomoth², Kenneth Wärnmark¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Analysis and Synthesis (CAS), Department of Chemistry, Lund University, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden. kenneth.warnmark@chem.lu.se.
² Department of Chemistry-Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden. reiner.lomoth@kemi.uu.se.

PMID: 35373799
DOI: 10.1039/d2cc01016j

Abstract

Herein we report the first high turnover photocatalytic hydrogen formation reaction based on an earth-abundant Fe^III-NHC photosensitiser. The reaction occurs via reductive quenching of the ²LMCT excited state that can be directly excited with green light and employs either Pt-colloids or [Co(dmgH)₂pyCl] as proton reduction catalysts and [HNEt₃][BF₄] and triethanolamine/triethylamine as proton and electron donors. The outstanding photostability of the Fe^III-NHC complex enables turnover numbers >1000 without degradation.