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- Araujo, Rafael B., et al.
(author)
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Assessing the electrochemical properties of polypyridine and polythiophene for prospective applications in sustainable organic batteries
- 2017
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In: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 19:4, s. 3307-3314
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Conducting polymers are being considered promising candidates for sustainable organic batteries mainly due to their fast electron transport properties and high recyclability. In this work, the key properties of polythiophene and polypyridine have been assessed through a combined theoretical and experimental study focusing on such applications. A theoretical protocol has been developed to calculate redox potentials in solution within the framework of the density functional theory and using continuous solvation models. Here, the evolution of the electrochemical properties of solvated oligomers as a function of the length of the chain is analyzed and then the polymer properties are estimated via linear regressions using ordinary least square. The predicted values were verified against our electrochemical experiments. This protocol can now be employed to screen a large database of compounds in order to identify organic electrodes with superior properties.
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| 2. |
- Araujo, Rafael B., et al.
(author)
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Designing strategies to tune reduction potential of organic molecules for sustainable high capacity battery application
- 2017
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In: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 5:9, s. 4430-4454
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Organic compounds evolve as a promising alternative to currently used inorganic materials in rechargeable batteries due to their low-cost, environmental friendliness and flexibility. One of the strategies to reach acceptable energy densities and to deal with the high solubility of known organic compounds is to combine small redox active molecules, acting as capacity carrying centres, with conducting polymers. Following this strategy, it is important to achieve redox matching between the chosen molecule and the polymer backbone. Here, a synergetic approach combining theory and experiment has been employed to investigate this strategy. The framework of the density functional theory connected with the reaction field method has been applied to predict the formal potential of 137 molecules and identify promising candidates for the referent application. The effects of including different ring types, e.g. fused rings or bonded rings, heteroatoms, and pi bonds, as well as carboxyl groups on the formal potential, have been rationalized. Finally, we have identified a number of molecules with acceptable theoretical capacities that show redox matching with thiophene-based conducting polymers which, hence, are suggested as pendent groups for the development of conducting redox polymer based electrode materials.
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| 5. |
- Sjodin, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Kinetic effects of hydrogen bonds on proton-coupled electron transfer from phenols
- 2006
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In: Journal of the American Chemical Society. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0002-7863 .- 1520-5126. ; 128:40, s. 13076-13083
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The kinetics and mechanism of proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) from a series of phenols to a laser flash generated [Ru(bpy)(3)](3+) oxidant in aqueous solution was investigated. The reaction followed a concerted electron-proton transfer mechanism (CEP), both for the substituted phenols with an intramolecular hydrogen bond to a carboxylate group and for those where the proton was directly transferred to water. Without internal hydrogen bonds the concerted mechanism gave a characteristic pH-dependent rate for the phenol form that followed a Marcus free energy dependence, first reported for an intramolecular PCET in Sjodin, M. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 3932-3962 and now demonstrated also for a bimolecular oxidation of unsubstituted phenol. With internal hydrogen bonds instead, the rate was no longer pH-dependent, because the proton was transferred to the carboxylate base. The results suggest that while a concerted reaction has a relatively high reorganization energy (lambda), this may be significantly reduced by the hydrogen bonds, allowing for a lower barrier reaction path. It is further suggested that this is a general mechanism by which proton-coupled electron transfer in radical enzymes and model complexes may be promoted by hydrogen bonding. This is different from, and possibly in addition to, the generally suggested effect of hydrogen bonds on PCET in enhancing the proton vibrational wave function overlap between the reactant and donor states. In addition we demonstrate how the mechanism for phenol oxidation changes from a stepwise electron transfer-proton transfer with a stronger oxidant to a CEP with a weaker oxidant, for the same series of phenols. The hydrogen bonded CEP reaction may thus allow for a low energy barrier path that can operate efficiently at low driving forces, which is ideal for PCET reactions in biological systems.
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