Département de chimie moléculaire

The development of multicomponent mol. systems for the photocatalytic redn. of water to hydrogen has experienced considerable growth since the end of the 1970s. Recently, with the aim of improving the efficiency of the catalysis, single-component photocatalysts have been developed in which the photosensitizer is chem. coupled to the hydrogen-evolving catalyst in the same mol. through a bridging ligand. Until now, none of these photocatalysts has operated efficiently in pure aq. soln.: a highly desirable medium for energy-conversion applications. Herein, we introduce a new ruthenium-rhodium polypyridyl complex as the first efficient homogeneous photocatalyst for H2 prodn. in water with turnover nos. of several hundred. This study also demonstrates unambiguously that the catalytic performance of such systems linked through a nonconjugated bridge is significantly improved as compared to that of a mixt. of the sep. components. [on SciFinder(R)]