| Institution: | 1. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Inorganic Oxygenated-Materials, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350108 China
These authors contributed equally to this work.;2. College of Electronics and Information Science, Fujian Jiangxia University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350108 China;3. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Inorganic Oxygenated-Materials, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350108 China |
| Abstract: | Inspired by the metal-oxo cluster structural feature and charge separation behaviour of the oxygen evolving center (OEC) in photosystem II (PS-II) under photoirradiation, a new crystalline photochromic polyoxomolybdate, MV2β-Mo8O26] ( 1 , MV=methyl viologen cation), is designed as a biomimetic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst in neutral electrolytes. After photoinduced electron transfer (PIET) with colour change from colourless to grey, it remains in an ultra-stable charge-separated state over a year under ambient conditions. The observed overpotential at 10 mA ⋅ cm−2 and Tafel slope decrease by 49 mV and 62.8 mV ⋅ dec−1 after coloration, respectively. The outstanding OER performance of the coloured state in neutral electrolytes even outperforms the commercial RuO2 benchmark. Experimental and theoretical studies show that oxygen holes within polyanions after irradiation serve as sites for enhancing direct O−O coupling, thus effectively promoting OER. This is the first successful application of electron-transfer photochromism to realize OER activity gain. |
