A Small Organic molecule Based on Benzothiadiazole for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Production

A small organic molecule 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole-4, 7-dicarbonitrile (BTDN) is assessed for electrocatalytic hydrogen, showing a hydrogen production faradaic efficiency of 82% in presence of salicylic acid. The key catalytic intermediates of reduced species BTDN−• and protonated intermediates are identified and characterized by using various spectroscopic methods and density functional theory (DFT) based calculations. With the experimental and theoretical results, a catalytic mechanism of BTDN for electrocatalytic H2 evolution is proposed.