Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 49, Pages 20627-20632Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0907775106
Keywords
bio-inspired chemistry; cobaloxime; electrocatalysis; hydrogen evolution reaction; hydrogenase
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Funding
- French National Research Agency (ANR) [07-BLAN0298-01]
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Hydrogen production through the reduction of water appears to be a convenient solution for the long-run storage of renewable energies. However, economically viable hydrogen production requests platinum-free catalysts, because this expensive and scarce (only 37 ppb in the Earth's crust) metal is not a sustainable resource [Gordon RB, Bertram M, Graedel TE (2006) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:1209-1214]. Here, we report on a new family of cobalt and nickel diimine-dioxime complexes as efficient and stable electro-catalysts for hydrogen evolution from acidic nonaqueous solutions with slightly lower overvoltages and much larger stabilities towards hydrolysis as compared to previously reported cobaloxime catalysts. A mechanistic study allowed us to determine that hydrogen evolution likely proceeds through a bimetallic homolytic pathway. The presence of a proton-exchanging site in the ligand, furthermore, provides an exquisite mechanism for tuning the electrocatalytic potential for hydrogen evolution of these compounds in response to variations of the acidity of the solution, a feature only reported for native hydrogenase enzymes so far.
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