Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2022, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (12): 3019-3045.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(22)64150-0

• Reviews • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Rational development of molecular earth-abundant metal complexes for electrocatalytic hydrogen production

John Daniel McCool, Shiyuan Zhang, Inen Cheng, Xuan Zhao()   

  1. Department of Chemistry, The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee 38152, United States
  • Received:2022-04-23 Accepted:2022-07-08 Online:2022-12-18 Published:2022-10-18
  • Contact: Xuan Zhao

Abstract:

For public health and environmental protection reasons, there is an urgent need to replace traditional fossil fuels with clean and renewable sources. Electrochemical splitting of water has the potential to produce clean hydrogen as a possible solution to global energy problems. This review article introduces the rational design of molecular metal complexes based on earth-abundant metals for electrocatalytic hydrogen production in water or water-organic media. Emphasis is placed on providing insight into structure-function relationships in catalytic properties for future ligand and catalyst design.

Key words: Hydrogen production, Homogeneous catalysis, Earth abundant metal, Electrocatalysis, Ligand design