Enhancing Hydrogen Evolution Activity of Au(111) in Alkaline Media through Molecular Engineering of a 2D Polymer

PATRICK ALEXA; J. M. LOMBARDI; P. ABUFAGER; H. F. BUSNENGO; DORIS GRUMELLI; VIJAY S. VYAS; FREDERIK HAASE; BETTINA V. LOTSCH; RICO GUTZLER; K. KERN

Angewandte Chemie

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2020 vol. 59 p. 8411 - 8415

1433-7851

The electrochemical splitting of water holds promisefor the storage of energy produced intermittently by renewableenergy sources. The evolution of hydrogen currently relies onthe use of platinum as a catalyst?which is scarce andexpensive?and ongoing research is focused towards findingcheaper alternatives. In this context, 2D polymers grown assingle layers on surfaces have emerged as porous materialswith tunable chemical and electronic structures that can be usedfor improving the catalytic activity of metal surfaces. Here, weuse designed organic molecules to fabricate covalent 2Darchitectures by an Ullmann-type coupling reaction on Au-(111). The polymer-patterned gold electrode exhibits a hydro-gen evolution reaction activity up to three times higher thanthat of bare gold. Through rational design of the polymer onthe molecular level we engineered hydrogen evolution activityby an approach that can be easily extended to other electro-catalytic reactions.