Electrochemical synthesis of Cu-pyrene MOF and its outstanding pohotoelectrocatalytic activity in hydrogen evolution reaction.

A new procedure based on bipolar electrochemistry (BPE) is proposed for the synthesis of a copper-pyrene framework (Cu-py MOF). Accordingly, BPE using Cu mesh as BP electrode between two stainless steel driving electrodes is performed for 150 min under an applied potential of 3.0 V in acetonitrile containing 5% of 0.1 M NaOH aqueous solution. After characterization, the resulting compound is utilized for HER in water at electrolyte-free condition. Interestingly, the photocatalytic water reduction at the resulting material starts at 0.64 V relative to RHE, and photocurrent is increased with sweeping of potential in the cathodic direction, where the current density at an applied potential of 0.3 V vs. RHE reaches ∼30 μA cm-2, and a faradic efficiency of 1.01 μM cm-2h-1 of H2 is obtained. This proposed method has a great potential in the synthesis of organic polymers orincorporation of organic-inorganic materials to derive various organic semiconductors, MOF, etc.