MIT News March 27, 2024
For electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide with a small-molecule catalyst, the catalyst must be proximal to an electrode surface. Efforts to immobilize molecular catalysts on electrodes have been stymied by the need to optimize the immobilization chemistries on a case-by-case basis. Researchers at MIT applied DNA as a molecular-scale “Velcro” to investigate the tethering of three porphyrin-based catalysts to electrodes improving both the stability of the catalysts and their Faradaic efficiencies (FEs). Immobilization resulted in higher catalyst stability at relevant potentials. Lower overpotentials were required for the generation of CO. High FE for CO generation was observed with the DNA-immobilized catalysts as compared to the unmodified small-molecule systems. According to the researchers their work demonstrated the potential of DNA “Velcro” as a powerful strategy for catalyst immobilization… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Bioinspired catalyst design… Credit: ACS Au 2024, XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX, March 25, 2024