Water splitting activity of oxygen-containing groups in graphene oxide catalyst in bipolar membranes
Affiliation
Univ Arizona, Dept Chem & Environm EngnIssue Date
2019-09-15
Metadata
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ELSEVIERCitation
Martínez, R. J., & Farrell, J. (2019). Water splitting activity of oxygen-containing groups in graphene oxide catalyst in bipolar membranes. Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, 1164, 112556.Rights
Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Graphene oxide (GO) is a very effective catalyst for splitting water into H+ and OH− ions in bipolar membranes. This research investigated the catalytic activity of six oxygenated functional groups in GO for water splitting. Møller-Plesset second order perturbation method (MP2) simulations were performed to calculate activation barriers for proton acceptance and release reactions with and without an applied electric field. The relative catalytic activity for the functional groups on GO was independent of the electric field intensity and dielectric constant. The catalytic activity for accepting and releasing a proton linearly correlated with the pKa of the functional groups. The edge carboxylate site had the highest catalytic activity for water splitting, and had activation barriers that were 0.2 to 0.4 kcal/mol higher than a model tertiary amine. This suggests that the high catalytic activity of GO results from a high catalytic site density, as opposed to a chemical effect.Note
24 month embargo; published online: 15 September 2019ISSN
2210-271XVersion
Final accepted manuscriptSponsors
National Science Foundation Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) Division [1604857]; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT), MexicoConsejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT) [409178]ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.comptc.2019.112556