Two-dimensional metal-organic surfaces for efficient hydrogen evolution from water

Hydrogen production through the reduction of water has emerged as an important strategy for the storage of renewable energy in chemical bonds. One attractive scenario for the construction of efficient devices for electrochemical splitting of water requires the attachment of stable and active hydrogen evolving catalysts to electrode surfaces, which remains a significant challenge. We demonstrate here the successful integration of cobalt dithiolene catalysts into a metal-organic surface to generate very active electrocatalytic cathode materials for hydrogen generation from water. These surfaces display high catalyst loadings and remarkable stability even under very acidic aqueous solutions. © 2014 American Chemical Society.