Hydrogen peroxide photoproduction by the semicarbazide—tris(2,2′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II)—oxygen system

A light-driven system consisting of tris(2,2′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) (Ru(bpy)₃²⁺) as the photosensitizer, semicarbazide as the electron donor and molecular oxygen as the electron acceptor has been employed for hydrogen peroxide production. The efficiency of this photosystem markedly depends on pH: while the peroxide yield is almost negligible at acid, neutral or slightly alkaline pH, it reaches significant values at high hydroxide concentrations, the initial rate of H₂O₂ formation drastically increasing from pH 12 to pH 14. In 1 M NaOH solutions containing Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ and semicarbazide at optimum concentrations, the number of catalytic cycles (or turnover number) undergone by the ruthenium complex over the complete course of the photochemical reaction is as high as 1.1 × 10⁴.

Spectrofluorometric and laser flash photolysis techniques were used to study the primary photochemical reactions involving the excited state of the ruthenium complex as well as the photochemically generated species Ru(bpy)₃³⁺ and Ru(bpy)₃⁺. It is proposed that at pH 14 a sequence of reactions leading to O₂ photoreduction by electrons from semicarbazide takes place, with the concomitant formation of H₂O₂; the excited state of Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ appears to react via oxidative quenching by oxygen rather than via reductive quenching by semicarbazide. At neutral pH, in contrast, there is no H₂O₂ formation owing to the fact that semicarbazide is unable to reduce (Ru(bpy)₃³⁺ to Ru(bpy)₃²⁺, although the photoexcited ruthenium complex is quenched equally by oxygen.