Electrochemical proton reduction to produce hydrogen is
considered a sustainable approach to shift the fossil fuel-based energy production
toward renewable energy sources. Although the development of molecular
electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) has gained
significant attention, most of these molecular catalysts require either strong
acids or often operate at high proton concentration to achieve high turnover. Herein,
we report the synthesis and charcterization of two Ni<sup>II</sup> complexes, [(N2S2)Ni(MeCN)<sub>2</sub>](OTf)<sub>2</sub>
(<b>1</b><b>•(OTf)<sub>2</sub></b>) and
(NCHS2)Ni(OTf)<sub>2</sub> (<b>2</b>) bearing bioinspired 3,7-dithia-1,5(2,6)-dipyridinacyclooctaphane
(N2S2) and 3,7-dithia-1(2,6)-pyridina-5(1,3)-benzenacyclooctaphane (NCHS2)
ligands, respectively, along with their electrochemical HER in a non-aqueous
electrolyte. Our Ni complexes show high turnover frequencies greater than 200,000
s<sup>–1</sup> in the presence of
0.043 M of trifluoroacetic acid with ≥1 M of water present.
Under these electrochemical conditions, <b>2</b> exhibited 2.5-fold faster
kinetics at 240 mV lower overpotential than that of <b>1</b><sup>2+</sup>. Furthermore,
<b>2</b> initiates electrochemical proton reduction at the potential where Ni<sup>II/I</sup>
redox couple occurs, whereas the similar HER electrocatalysis carried out by <b>1</b><sup>2+</sup><sub>
</sub>was observed at the potential for the Ni<sup>I/0</sup> redox couple. The
electrochemical analysis revealed that <b>2</b> undergoes an uncommon HER mechanism
proposed to involve a Ni<sup>III</sup>–hydride species – a typical pathway
followed by [NiFe] hydrogenase enzymes, upon activating the C–H bond of the
coordinating NCHS2 ligand, and the resulting organometallic Ni complex is
proposed to be the active HER electrocatalyst. This organometallic Ni complex
derivative, [(NCS2)Ni(MeCN)<sub>2</sub>]<sup>2+</sup> (<b>5</b>) was synthesized
independently and its performance for the HER supports the proposed HER mechanism
for <b>2</b>. Additionally, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy was
employed to probe the accessibility to Ni<sup>I</sup> and Ni<sup>III</sup> species
proposed as intermediates in the described HER mechanisms. Importantly, comparative
catalytic Tafel plots were constructed to benchmark the HER activity of <b>1</b><sup>2+</sup>
and <b>2</b> versus previously reported known Ni-based HER electrocatalysts. Overall,
the organometallic (NCS2)Ni system reported below represents a novel
bioinspired molecular HER electrocatalyst that exhibits a high turnover
frequency and more closely resembles the Ni<sup>I</sup>/Ni<sup>III</sup> HER
mechanism proposed to pe operative in [NiFe] hydrogenases.