Photochemical Hydrogen Evolution from Water by a 1D-Network of Octahedral Ni6L8 Cages

A self-assembled M6L8 type cage-connected 1D-coordination network of formula {[Ni6(MeSi(3py)3)8Cl9(H2O)2]Cl3•16H2O}∞ (1) was obtained from a 3-pyridyl substituted silane ligand MeSi(3py)3. This complex shows significantly high performance for the electrocatalytic and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) in water. A maximum turnover number (TON) of 2824 has been observed for photocatalytic HER after 69 h.