Cobalt(I) and nickel(II) dimers: A new class of luminescent complexes and photocatalysts benefiting from metal-metal cooperativity

• Applicant: Dr. Vanitha Reddy Naina
• Subject Area: Inorganic Molecular Chemistry - Synthesis and Characterisation
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 545036894

Photocatalytic hydrogen formation has emerged as one of the promising approaches for solar energy conversion. Photocatalysts used for this approach are often based on polynuclear metal complexes comprised of precious and rare elements such as ruthenium, rhodium, platinum and gold. Low abundance and high cost of these metals significantly hinder their practical application in large scale systems. The need to replace these noble metals with more abundant and cheaper metals has led to an increased interest in developing photoactive complexes based on first-row transition metals. Until now, contemporary research efforts in this area focused almost exclusively on mononuclear complexes with these metals, i. e., those containing only a single metal atom. Polynuclear variants of photoactive first-row transition metal compounds have received extremely limited attention so far. Photoactive and luminescent polynuclear complexes based on precious metals featuring metallophilic interactions represent an important class of compounds and have already found applications in fields such as optoelectronics and bioimaging. Here, the applicant proposes to develop novel dinuclear metal complexes based on abundant first-row transition metals, which possess photoluminescence properties and photocatalytic activity for hydrogen formation. The proposed metal complexes could have a substantial impact on sustainable applications in catalysis and solar energy storage, particularly if the photophysical and photochemical properties known from Rh(I)-Rh(I) and Pt(II)-Pt(II) dimers could be emulated with Co(I)-Co(I) or Ni(II)-Ni(II) dimers.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Host: Professor Dr. Oliver S. Wenger