Visible light induced oxidation of water by rare earth manganites, cobaltites and related oxides

A study of the visible light induced oxidation of water by perovskite oxides of the formula LaMO3 (M=transition metal) has revealed the best activity with LaCoO3 which contains Co3+ in the intermediate-spin (IS) with one eg electron. Among the rare earth manganites, only orthorhombic manganites with octahedral Mn3+ ions exhibit good catalytic activity, but hexagonal manganites are poor catalysts. Interestingly, not only the perovskite rare earth cobaltites but also solid solutions of Co3+ in cubic rare earth sesquioxides exhibit catalytic activity comparable to LaCoO3, the Co3+ ion in all these oxides also being in the IS t 2 g 5 e g 1 state.