Photocatalytic decomposition of water by adsorbates of molybdenum- and rhenium cluster complexes

The ability of cluster complexes of Mo and Re with weak field ligands adsorbed on SiO2 to catalyze water photodestruction has been investigated. The open structural cluster Mo2Cl84- and Re3Cl9 with a large number of valence electrons in M-M bonds (8 and 12e- respectively) are shown to catalyze water photodestruction during the irradiation by light with lambda > 640 nm. H2 and O2 release has been registered by means of mass-spectroscopy. On the basis of the obtained dependence of the gas eduction rate on light intensity it is concluded that the process of H2O photodestruction is multiphoton, when H2O is coordinated on adsorbed complexes