Acid‐ and Base‐Catalyzed Hydrolytic Hydrogen Evolution from Diboronic Acid
Yi Wang, Jialu Shen, Yu Huang, Xiang Liu, Qiuxia Zhao, Didier Astruc
Abstract
Abstract The efficient production of H 2 from hydrogen‐rich sources, particularly from water, is a crucial task and a great challenge, both as a sustainable energy source and on the laboratory scale for hydrogenation reactions. Herein, a facile and effective synthesis of H 2 and D 2 from only acid‐ or base‐catalyzed metal‐free hydrolysis of B 2 (OH) 4 , a current borylation reagent, has been developed without any transition metal or ligand. Acid‐catalyzed H 2 evolution was completed in 4 min, whereas the base‐catalyzed process needed 6 min. The large kinetic isotopic effects for this reaction with D 2 O, deuteration experiments and mechanistic studies have confirmed that both H atoms of H 2 originate from water using either of these reactions. This new, metal‐free catalytic system holds several advantages, such as high efficiency, simplicity of operation, sustainability, economy, and potential further use.