Metalloporphyrin-based photocatalysts have attracted great interest due to their high extinction coefficient in the visible range coupled to a catalytically active central metal ion surrounded by a highly conjugated heterocyclic macrocycle. In this work, fused copper(II) porphyrin-based conjugated polymer thin films are shown to be active electrocatalysts and photocatalysts for the heterogeneous hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The fused copper(II) porphyrin thin films notably show a significant reduction of the overpotential required for HER in comparison to the reference nonfused porphyrin thin films. More importantly, in-depth high-resolution mass spectrometry reveals how the porphyrin substituents influence the catalytic performance of the films, with phenyl substituents enabling superior photocatalytic performances over mesityl substituents, providing insights for the engineering of heterogeneous catalysts based on fused metalloporphyrins.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.