Photoinduced hydrogen evolution by a pentapyridine cobalt complex: elucidating some mechanistic aspects

A new hydrogen evolving cobalt catalyst 1 based on a pentapyridine ligand has been synthesized and characterized. Its photocatalytic activity in the presence of a Ru(bpy)3 2+ sensitizer and ascorbic acid as a sacrificial electron donor has been screened in purely buffered aqueous solutions showing TONs and TOFs strongly dependent on both catalyst concentration and pH with the best results obtained at 50 μM 1 and at pH 4 (TON = 187, TOF = 8.1 min−1). The photochemical mechanism, as revealed by flash photolysis, involves reaction of the excited sensitizer with ascorbic acid to yield Ru(bpy)3 + as a primary photogenerated reductant, capable of electron transfer to 1 with a remarkable rate (bimolecular rate constant k = 5.7 (±0.7) × 109 M−1 s−1). For hydrogen generation, two one-electron photochemical reduction steps of 1 are needed along with hydride formation and protonation. Under the experimental conditions used, hydrogen evolution is mainly limited by partial decomposition of both the sensitizer and the catalyst. Moreover, accumulation of the oxidation product of the ascorbic acid donor, dehydroascorbic acid, is observed to strongly decrease the hydrogen production yield. As shown by flash photolysis, this species is capable of quenching the reduced ruthenium species (k = 4.4 (±0.5) × 107 M−1 s−1) thus competing with electron transfer to the catalyst