NICKEL (II) THIOLATE COMPLEXES AS CATALYSTS FOR ELECTROCHEMICAL PROTON REDUCTION

Abstract

With hydrogen being one of the cleanest renewable alternative to fossil fuels, sustainable hydrogen production is crucial to attain future hydrogen economy. The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is an essential part of water electrolysis to hydrogen generation but requires the use of electrocatalysts to ensure efficiency. To minimize the prohibitive cost of using noble metals as electrocatalysts despite their effectiveness, we turned to transition metals as alternatives. In this work, we aim to develop nickel thiolate complexes inspired by the dithiolate-bridged [NiFe] hydrogenase active site, which is one of the most efficient natural-occurring enzymes known to generate H2. Electrochemical studies were carried out to evaluate their catalytic performance and their mechanisms were proposed with the aid of computational calculations.