Picosecond optical and X-ray absorption spectroscopies with time- dependent density functional theory revealed the reaction pathways, electronic and structural conformations of Ir–Co hydrogen evolution photocatalysts. The dyad bearing 2-phenylpyridine ancillary ligands produced more photoreduced Co(II) than its 2-phenylisoquinoline analogue. These findings are important for designs of earth- abundant photosensitizers for photocatalytic applications.
Zhao, J., De Kreijger, S., Troian-Gautier, L., Yu, J., Hu, W., Zhang, X., Elias, B., & Moonshiram, D. (2022). Deciphering the photophysical kinetics, electronic configurations and structural conformations of iridium–cobalt hydrogen evolution photocatalysts. Chemical Communications. Accepted/in-press. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2cc02286a (Original work published 2022)