A covalent cobalt diimine-dioxime - fullerene assembly for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production from near-neutral aqueous media.

The covalent assembly between a cobalt diimine-dioxime complex and a fullerenic moiety results in enhanced catalytic properties in terms of overpotential requirement for H evolution. The interaction between the fullerene moiety and PCBM heterojunction further allows for the easy integration of the cobalt diimine-dioxime - fullerene catalyst with a poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT):[6,6]-phenyl-C-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) bulk heterojunction, yielding hybrid photoelectrodes for H evolution from near-neutral aqueous solutions.