The oxygen reduction reaction on [NiFe] hydrogenases

Abstract

Oxygen tolerance capacity is critical for hydrogen oxidation/evolution catalysts. In nature, [NiFe] hydrogenases show excellent O₂-tolerance and can rapidly reactivate the active site. This work aims to understand the reduction of O₂ on the active site of [NiFe] hydrogenases. From the density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the free energy diagram for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been derived and the rate-determining step is found to be the Ni-B to Ni-SI_b′ step. Our calculation explains the slow reactivation for the Ni-A state compared to the Ni-B state, which is due to the particularly stable structure of the Ni-A state.