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Abstract Hydrogen‐bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) are outstanding candidates for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. However, most of reported HOFs suffer from poor stability and photocatalytic activity in the absence of Pt cocatalyst. Herein, a series of metal HOFs (Co 2 ‐HOF‐X, X=COOMe, Br, tBu and OMe) have been rationally constructed based on dinuclear cobalt complexes, which exhibit exceptional stability in the presence of strong acid (12 M HCl) and strong base (5 M NaOH) for at least 10 days. More impressively, by varying the ‐X groups of the dinuclear cobalt complexes, the microenvironment of Co 2 ‐HOF‐X can be modulated, giving rise to obviously different photocatalytic H 2 production rates, following the −X group sequence of −COOMe>−Br>−tBu>−OMe. The optimized Co 2 ‐HOF‐COOMe shows H 2 generation rate up to 12.8 mmol g −1 h −1 in the absence of any additional noble‐metal photosensitizers and cocatalysts, which is superior to most reported Pt‐assisted photocatalytic systems. Experiments and theoretical calculations reveal that the −X groups grafted on Co 2 ‐HOF‐X possess different electron‐withdrawing ability, thus regulating the electronic structures of Co catalytic centres and proton activation barrier for H 2 production, and leading to the distinctly different photocatalytic activity.
Lu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.