Medium Effects Are as Important as Catalyst Design for Selectivity in Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction by Iron-Porphyrin Complexes

Several substituted iron-porphyrin complexes were evaluated for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysis in different homogeneous and heterogeneous media. The selectivity for four-electron reduction to H2O versus two-electron reduction to H2O2 varies substantially from one medium to another for a given catalyst. In many cases, the influence of the medium in which the catalyst is evaluated has a larger effect on the observed selectivity than the factors attributable to chemical modification of the catalyst. For instance, introduction of potential proton relays has variable effects depending on the catalyst medium. Thus, comparisons of selectivity results from supported and soluble molecular ORR electrocatalysts must be interpreted with caution, as selectivity is a property not only of the catalyst, but also of the larger mesoscale environment beyond the catalyst. Still, in all the direct pairwise comparisons in the same medium, the catalysts with potential proton relays have similar or better selectivity for the preferred 4e(-) path.