Our previous work showed significant improvement in homogeneous catalytic H2 evolution could be achieved by ligand modification of [Co(DPA-Bpy)(H2O)](PF6)3] (DPA-Bpy = N,N-bis(2-pyridinylmethyl)-2,2'-bipyridine-6-methanamine). In order to fully understand the electronic effect of ligand modification in catalytic H2 evolution, two new molecular cobalt complexes with pyridyls replaced by isoquinoline groups in axial position were synthesized. It was found that these two complexes displayed very different activities for H2 evolution in aqueous solution. Density functional theory (DFT) computations showed that the stabilities of CoIII-H could account for the different activities. Formation of unreactive metallocycle complex, CoIII-P4H, was proposed as a main cause of the deactivation of catalyst in H2 evolution.

Syntheses and characterization of molecular cobalt complexes with pentadentate ligands for electro- and photocatalytic hydrogen production

255th National Meeting (2018)

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