Chemistry Department Colloquium

Abstract
The replacement of fossil fuels by a clean and renewable energy source is one of the most urgent and challenging issues our society is facing today, which is why intense research is devoted to this topic today. Nature has been using sunlight as the primary energy input to oxidize water and generate carbohydrates (a solar fuel) for over a billion years. Inspired, but not constrained, by nature, artificial systems[1] can be designed to carry out redox catalysis induced by light for instance to oxidize water and reduce protons or other organic compounds to generate useful chemical fuels. In this context this contribution will present a variety of molecular water oxidation and proton reduction catalysts[2] based on first row and second row transition metal complexes. Their capacity to carry out these reactions induced by light will be analyzed and discussed.[3]


References
[1] Berardi, S.; Drouet, S.; Francàs, L.; Gimbert-Suriñach, C.; Guttentag, M.; Richmond, C.; Stoll, T.; Llobet, A. Chem. Soc. Rev., 2014, 43, 7501-7519.
[2] (a) Neudeck, S.; Maji, S.; López, I.; Meyer, S.; Meyer, F.; Llobet, A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 24-27. (b) López, I.; Ertem, M. Z.; Maji, S.; Benet-Buchholz, J.; Keidel, A.; Kuhlmann, U.; Hildebrandt, P.; Cramer, C. J.; Batista, V. S.; Llobet, A. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 205-210. (c) Garrido-Barros, P.; Funes-Ardoiz, I.; Drouet, S.; Benet-Buchholz, J.; Maseras, F.; Llobet, A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 6758-6761. (d) Matheu, R.; Ertem, M.Z.; Benet-Buchholz, J.; Coronado, E.; Batista, V. S.; Sala, X.; Llobet, A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 10786-10795.
[3] (a) Farras, P.; Di Giovanni, C.; Clifford, J. N.; Garrido-Barros, P.; Palomares, E.; Llobet, A. Green Chem., 2016, 18, 255-260. b) Moonshiram, D.; Gimbert-Suriñach, C.; Guda, A.; Picon, A.; Lehmann, C. S.; Zhang, X.; Doumy, G.; March, A. M.; Benet-Buchholz, J.; Soldatov, A.; Llobet, A.; Southworth, S. H. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138