Issue 8, 2019

Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution with gallium hydride and ligand-centered reduction

Abstract

GaIII chloride tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)porphyrin (1) was synthesized and shown to be a highly active and stable post-transition metal-based electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Electrochemical and spectroscopic studies indicate that both the first and second reduction events of 1 are ligand-centered. The 2e-reduced form 12− reacts with a proton to give GaIII–H species (1–H), which undergoes protonolysis with Brønsted acids to produce H2. The identification of key intermediates 1, 12−, and 1–H leads to a catalytic cycle, which is valuable for the fundamental understanding of the HER. This study presents a rare but highly active HER electrocatalyst with unusual features, including ligand-centered electron transfer and formation of post-transition metal hydride.

Graphical abstract: Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution with gallium hydride and ligand-centered reduction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
26 Nov 2018
Accepted
26 Dec 2018
First published
27 Dec 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 2308-2314

Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution with gallium hydride and ligand-centered reduction

N. Wang, H. Lei, Z. Zhang, J. Li, W. Zhang and R. Cao, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 2308 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC05247F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements