Moving from copper(I) complexes for photocatalytic applications to p-type thiophene-based polymers for autonomous H2O2 productio

In the last fifty years, metal complexes have gained an important role in many different fields, such as photovoltaics, optoelectronics or photoredox catalysis. However, most of the attention focused on precious and expensive metals such as iridium and ruthenium, which show appealing properties, but cannot be sustainably used in the long term, so that in this context copper (I) complexes have emerged as a promising non-noble metal alternative.

The design and characterisation of a new series of heteroleptic copper (I) complexes of type (PP)Cu(NN) will be 
presented. The presence of the bulky phosphine ligand (PP) ensures a reduced Jahn Teller distortion effect, while the type of diimine ligand (NN) dominates the photophysics of the complexes. In this presentation the modulation of the photophysical and electrochemical properties of this class of complexes by tuning the conjugation extension of the diimine core will be described. Furthermore, the synthesis of dinuclear complexes and the study of cooperativity effects will be discussed.

Moving from small metal complexes to longer chain molecules, the study of H₂O₂ production by oxidation of a new conjugated polymer will be presented. Indeed, it was proven that this new p-type thiophene-based polymer, with a low ionization energy, was able to spontaneously reduce O₂ to H₂O₂ in water without the need for an external energy supply. As will be presented the use of a sacrificial electron donor to regenerate the polymer, which could be used in the future to develop continuous H₂O₂ production in a flow system.

Biosketch

Cecilia Bruschi received her bachelor (2017) in “Chemistry and materials chemistry” and her master (2019) in 
“Photochemistry and molecular materials” at the University of Bologna. She obtained her PhD in Chemistry at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) in 2023 supervised by prof. Claudia Bizzarri. In the same year she moved to Sweden, where she is currently a postdoc in the laboratory of organic electronics at the Linköping university, under 
supervision of prof. Renee Kroon.