Water splitting converts water into the elements oxygen and hydrogen in a highly energy demanding reaction, which represents a promising strategy to make and store solar energy. Water splitting involves the oxidation of water to oxygen and reduction of water protons to hydrogen. An efficient water oxidation process requires a fast and robust water oxidation catalyst (WOC), which is a challenge. One suggested deactivation pathway of WOCs is loss of ligand(s). Therefore, increasing ligand denticity could be a useful strategy to develop more stable and robust WOCs. Herein, we will discuss synthesis and catalytic activity of a new family of complexes (structure 1) with a new pentadentate ligand. Pentadentate complexes have shown promising results for water oxidation at both pH = 1 and 7. Cyclic voltammetry and spectroelectrochemistry were used to get insight about the mechanism and rate constant for water oxidation activity.
