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Updated: Jun 6, 2025

Hydrogen Production and Utilization in a Membrane Reactor
Published on: March 10, 2023
Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction with a Cu porphyrin bearing meso-CF3 substituents
Wenzi Li1, Xinyang Peng1, Haonan Qin1
1Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710119, China. pengxinyang@snnu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Cu tetrakis(trifluoromethyl)porphyrin (1) was synthesized and examined as an electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). We showed that 1 is highly efficient for the electrocatalytic HER in acetonitrile with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and outperforms Cu tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)porphyrin (2) by decreasing the onset overpotential by 220 mV. The icat/ip value (icat is the catalytic peak current and ip is the non-catalytic peak current) with 1 is 97, while it is 53 with 2. These results suggest that for Cu porphyrins, meso-CF3 substituents are much more effective than meso-C6F5 substituents to enhance the HER.
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