Copper complexes as catalyst precursors in the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction.

Herein, we report the synthesis and species distribution of copper(ii) complexes based on two different ligand scaffolds and the application of the two complexes in the electrochemical proton reduction catalysis. The ligands bind to one or two copper(II) ions and the pH-dependent mono/dinuclear equilibrium depends on the steric bulk of the ligands. The two water soluble copper(II) complexes were investigated for their activities in the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In both complexes the copper(ii) ions have a N4-coordination environment composed of N-heterocycles, although in different coordination geometries (SPY-5 and TBPY-5). The solutions of the complexes were highly active catalysts in water at acidic pH but the complexes decompose under catalytic conditions. They act as precursors for highly active copper(0) and Cu2O deposits at the electrode surface, which are in turn the active catalysts. The absence or presence of the ligands has neither an influence on the catalytic activity of the solutions nor an influence on the activity of the deposit formed during controlled potential electrolysis. Finally, we can draw some conclusions on the stability of copper catalysts in the aqueous electrochemical HER.

Copper Complexes with NH-Imidazolyl and NH-Pyrazolyl Units and Determination of Their Bond Dissociation Gibbs Energies.

We synthesized two dinuclear copper complexes, which have ionizable N imidazole and N pyrazole protons in the ligand, respectively, and determined the BDFE of the hypothetical H atom transfer reactions Cu(II)(LH(-1)) + H(•) ↔ Cu(I)(L) in MeOH/H2O (BDFE: bond dissociation Gibbs (free) energy). The ligands have two adjacent N,N',O-binding pockets, which differ in one N-heterocycle: L(a) has an imidazole unit and L(c), a pyrazole unit. The copper(II) complexes of L(a) and L(c) have been characterized, and the substitution pattern has only little influence on the structural properties. The BDFEs of the hypothetical PCET reactions have been determined by means of the species distribution and the redox potentials of the involved species in MeOH/H2O (80/20 by weight). The pyrazole copper complex 3 exhibits a lower BDFE than the isoelectronic imidazole copper complex 1 (1, 292(3) kJ mol(-1); 3, 279(1) kJ mol(-1)). The difference is mainly caused by the higher acidity of the N pyrazole proton of 3 compared to the N imidazole proton of 1. The redox potentials of 1 and 3 are very similar.