Analysis of Porphyrines as Catalysts for Electrochemical Reduction of O₂ and Oxidation of H₂O

Bioinspired structures are promising as improved catalysts for various redox reactions. One example is metal hangman-porphyrines (MHP), which recently have been suggested for oxygen reduction/evolution reaction (ORR/OER). The unique properties of the MHPs are attributed to both the hangman scaffold and the C₆F₅ side groups. Herein, the OER/ORR over various transition metal MHPs is investigated by density functional theory calculations within an electrochemical framework. A comparison of the reaction landscape for MHP, metal porphyrine (MP) and metaltetrafluorophenyloporphyrines (MTFPP), allow for a disentanglement of the different roles of the hangman motif and the side groups. In agreement with experimental studies, it is found that Fe and Co are the best MHP metal centers to catalyze these reactions. We find that the addition of the three-dimensional moiety in the form of hangman scaffold does not break the apparently universal energy relation between *OH and *OOH intermediates. However, the hangman motif is found to stabilize the oxygen intermediate, whereas addition of C₆F₅ groups reduces the binding energy of all reaction intermediates. Our results indicate that the combination of these two effects allow new design possibilities for macromolecular systems with enhanced catalytic OER/ORR activity