Transition metal macrocyclic compounds

Normally, the kinetics of ORR and OER occurring at the cathode of fuel cells, including direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) is very slow. In order to speed up the ORR kinetics to reach a practical usable level in a fuel cell, ORR catalyst is needed at the air cathode. Platinum (Pt)-based materials are the most practical catalysts used in PEM technology. These Pt-based catalysts are too expensive to make fuel cells commercially viable, and hence extensive research over the past several decades has been focused on development of alternative catalysts. These alternative electrocatalysts include noble metals and allo37S, carbon materials, quinone and its derivatives, transition metal macrocyclic compounds, transition metal chalcogenides, transition metal carbides and transition metal oxides. In this chapter, we focus on both noble and nonnoble electrocatalysts being used in air cathodes and the kinetics and mechanisms O2 reduction/oxidation reaction (both ORR and OER), catal37zed by them. 

Electrocatalytic ORR carries out in three pathways the 1-electron transfer pathway, producing superoxide ion the 2-electron transfer pathway, producing hydrogen peroxide and the 4-electron transfer pathway, producing water. In a non-aqueous aprotic solvent system, a room-temperature ionic liquid system, and on specific transition-metal, macrocyclic-compounds-coated graphite electrodes in alkaline solutions, 1-electron reduction can be observed. Carbon materials, quinone and derivatives, mono-nuclear cobalt macrocyclic compounds, and some chalcogenides can only catalyze 2-electron ORR. Noble metal, noble metal alloy materials, iron-macrocyclic complexes, di-nuclear cobalt macrocyclic complexes, some chalcogenides, and transition-metal carbide-promoted Pt catalysts can catalyze 4-electron reduction. 

During the last two decades a variety of transition metal macrocycles have been shown to exhibit activity for O2 reduction In alkaline and acid media when adsorbed, chemically anchored or physically dispersed on electrode surface (Jf5). This class of compounds provides a unique opportunity to examine In detail some of the factors Involved In the activation and further reduction of 02 These would Include the effects associated with axial, peripheral... 

Considerable progress has been made recently In the development of In situ spectroscopic techniques applicable to the study of transition metal macrocycles adsorbed at submonolayer coverages onto electrode surfaces. These have been aimed at gaining Insight into the nature of the Interactions of these compounds with the surface and with 02 Most of the attention In the authors laboratory has been focused on Fe- and Co-TsPc, although some preliminary results have already been obtained for some Iron and cobalt porphyrins. The main conclusions obtained from these Investigations will be outlined In the following sections. 

The two main methods currently used in computational and combined computational/experimental studies in the general area of transition metal coordination compounds, and specifically also with macrocyclic ligands, are DFT and MM. While DFT yields structural data, energies and molecular vibrations, as well as electronic information (the ground state wave function, spin density, charge distribution etc ), the latter is missing in MM. 

Novel photochemical (and thermal) reactions of macrocyclic oxa-sila-acetylenic ring systems (expected to show unusual optical properties because of electronic effects arising from orbital overlap of the acetylenic n system with the silicon a bonds and the oxygen lone-pair electrons) were described. While thermolysis in the presence of a transition metal carbonyl compound gave cyclization to both benzenoid and fulvene species, photolysis in the presence of the transition metal carbonyl compound (which catalyzes 1,2-silyl shifts across a carbon-carbon triple bond) gave fulvene and vinylidene products, the latter being readily photolyzed to the fulvene 159 (equation 101). 

In 1964, Jasinski reported his pioneering work on using cobalt phthalocyanine, adsorbed on carbon and nickel eleetrodes, as a promising catalyst for the reduction of oxygen [8]. Following Jasinski s work, many other transition metal macrocyclic N4-complexes, including porphyrins, phthalocyanines, and tetraazannulenes, were also explored. The transition metals evaluated inelude Mn, Ru, Pd, Pt, Ir, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Al, Sn, Sb, Ga, Na, Ag, vanadyl ion, as well as uranyl ion. All of these compounds show a certain level of eleetroeatalytie aetivity towards the ORR [6, 9]. 

The decomposition of the peroxide to hydroxide and oxygen is a key rate-limiting step in the reaction sequence. To accelerate the reduction of the peroxide species and the overall reaction rate, the air cathode is formulated using catalytic compounds which promote the reaction in step 2. These catalysts are typically metal compounds or complexes such as elemental silver, cobalt oxide, noble metals and their compounds, mixed metal compounds including rare earth metals, and transition metal macrocyclics, spinels, manganese tUoxide, phtalocyanines or perovskites." - ... 

A number of transition metal macrocycles have been shown to promote the rates of oxygen reduction when adsorbed on a variety of carbon surfaces. Attention has been mainly focused on phthalocyanines and porphyrins containing iron and cobalt centers, as their activity in certain cases has been found to be comparable to that of platinum. Essential to the understanding of the mechanism by which these compounds catalyze the reduction of O2 is the description of the interactions, not only with the reactant, but also with the substrate. In situ techniques can provide much of this needed information, and indeed a number of such methods have been used in connection with this type of system. One of the first illustrations of the use of Mossbauer... 

Almost as soon as Pedersen announced his discovery of the crown ethers (see Chaps. 2 and 3) it was recognized by many that these species were similar to those prepared by Busch and coworkers for binding coinage and transition metals (see Sect. 2.1). The latter compounds contained all or a predominance of nitrogen and sulfur (see also Chap. 6) in accordance with their intended use. The crown ethers and the polyazamacrocycles represented two extremes in cation binding ability and preparation of the intermediate compounds quickly ensued. In the conceptual sense, monoazacrowns are the simplest variants of the macrocyclic polyethers and these will be discussed first. 

Although most of the macrocycles that contain phosphorus or arsenic which have thus far been prepared, are primarily transition metals binders, two compounds have been prepared which are essentially crown ethers containing phosphorus. Kudrya, Shtepanek and Kirsanovhave prepared two compounds which are essentially polyoxygen macrocycles but which contain one or two methylphosphonic acid esters as part of the ring. These two macrocycles are shown below as 7d and 17 and are both prepared by the reaction of 2,2 [oxybis(ethyleneoxy)] bisphenolate with methylphosphonic dichloride in a mixture of acetonitrile and benzene. The crystalline monomer 16) and dimer 17) were isolated in 17% and 11% yields respectively as indicated in Eq. (6.13). 

We have not attempted to cover all or even most aspects of crown chemistry and some may say that the inclusions are eclectic. We felt that anyone approaching the field would need an appreciation for the jargon currently abounding and for the so-called template effect since the latter has a considerable bearing on the synthetic methodology. We have, therefore, included brief discussions of these topics in the first two chapters. In chapters 3—8, we have tried to present an overview of the macrocyclic polyethers which have been prepared. We have taken a decidedly organic tack in this attempting to be comprehensive in our inclusion of alkali and alkaline earth cation binders rather than the compounds of use in transition metal chemistry. Nevertheless, many of the latter are included in concert with their overall importance. 

Perspectives for fabrication of improved oxygen electrodes at a low cost have been offered by non-noble, transition metal catalysts, although their intrinsic catalytic activity and stability are lower in comparison with those of Pt and Pt-alloys. The vast majority of these materials comprise (1) macrocyclic metal transition complexes of the N4-type having Fe or Co as the central metal ion, i.e., porphyrins, phthalocyanines, and tetraazaannulenes [6-8] (2) transition metal carbides, nitrides, and oxides (e.g., FeCjc, TaOjcNy, MnOx) and (3) transition metal chalcogenide cluster compounds based on Chevrel phases, and Ru-based cluster/amorphous systems that contain chalcogen elements, mostly selenium. 

For the domino transition metal-catalyzed synthesis of macrocycles, conditions must be found for two distinct cross-coupling reactions, of which one is inter- and the other intramolecular. For this purpose, Zhu s group [115] has developed a process of a Miyura arylboronic ester formation followed by an intramolecular Suzuki reaction to give model compounds of the biphenomycin structure 6/1-232 containing an endo-aryl-aryl bond. 

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