Electrode Integration of Synthetic Hydrogenase as Bioinspired and Noble Metal-Free Cathodes for Hydrogen Evolution

Diiron complexes mimicking the H-cluster of [FeFe]-hydrogenases have been extensively studied as (electro-)catalysts for proton reduction under homogeneous conditions. The incorporation of such complexes as "active sites" within macromolecular scaffolds such as organic polymers is receiving increasing attention as this strategy allows controlling the environment, that is, the outer coordination sphere, around the molecular catalytic center, to tune its performance as well as its stability. Here, we report on the synthesis and characterization of a library of metallo-copolymers featuring a bioinspired diiron active site and internal proton relays based on a previous report [Brezinski et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 11898–11902]. The polymers are further functionalized with various amounts of pyrene groups for efficient noncovalent anchoring onto multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), enabling the preparation of molecularly engineered electrode materials. The addition of pyrene anchors resulted in improved activity and stability, with a pyrene loading of about ∼8% corresponding to an optimized balance between polymer hydrophilicity and surface affinity. The best material displayed an average turnover frequency (TOFH2) of 4.3 ± 0.6 s–1 and a conservative turnover number for H2 production (TONH2) of 3.1 ± 0.4 × 105 after 20 h of continuous bulk electrolysis in aqueous conditions at 0.39 V overpotential. Interestingly, comparing such activities with an analogous diiron site deprived from polymeric scaffold revealed that latter could only show TONH2 of ∼4 ± 2 × 103 and TOFH2 of 0.06 ± 0.02 s–1 in 20 h under the same conditions. Post operando analysis of the modified electrodes suggests that electrode inactivation occurs via leaching of the diiron core from MWNT. In addition, a life cycle assessment was carried out to evaluate the performance of the engineered electrode materials not only from a technical perspective but also from an environmental point of view.