Abstract: An iron complex based on polypyridyl ligands was synthesized and characterized. The Electrochemisty of this complex showed that it exhibits two reduction peaks and two oxidation peaks in which the former assigned to FeIII/FeII and FeII/FeI, respectively. The performance of electrocatalytic proton reduction of the complex was examined via using different strength acids (acetic acid, trifluoroacetic acid and tetrafluoroboric acid) as proton sources. From the cyclic voltammograms, we can conclude that the protons catalyzed by different strength acids possess one common feature, that when 1 equivalent of proton source is added, the first reduction peak current intensity increases. The subsequent addition of proton source led to increase slowly of the current intensity with the increase of proton concentration until the effect it tended to stabilize. When tetrafluoroboric acid was used as the proton source, two new reduction peaks appeared, and the peak current of the new reduction peak increased with the increase of the normal concentration of proton source. This shows that when strong acid is used as a proton source, the effect of the electrocatalytic hydrogen production is more obvious.

Key words: Iron complex, Cyclic voltammetry, Protic acid, Electrocatalytic reduction, Hydrogen production

摘要： 合成并表征了一种基于多吡啶配体配位的铁配合物。电化学研究表明，配合物在循环伏安图中表现出两个还原峰和两个氧化峰，前者分别归属于FeIII/FeII和FeII/FeI的还原过程。以不同强度的酸(乙酸、三氟乙酸、四氟硼酸)作为质子源，研究了铁配合物电催化质子还原的性能。由循环伏安曲线得出：铁配合物对不同强度酸的质子还原有一个共同点，即在加入1当量质子源时，配合物的第一个还原峰电流强度均有增加，然而，随质子源浓度进一步增加，峰电流强度先缓慢增加，然后趋于稳定。在四氟硼酸作为质子源时，出现了两个新的还原峰，且新还原峰的峰电流随着质子源当量浓度的增加而增大。说明以强酸作质子源时，多吡啶铁配合物的电催化制氢效果更加明显。

关键词: 铁配合物, 　循环伏安, 　质子酸, 　电催化还原, 　制氢