Driven by population and quality of living increases, the global consumption of energy is expected to dramatically increase over the course of the century. To avoid meeting this demand with fossil fuels, new carbon neutral energy sources must be implemented which are competitive in cost and performance with those currently in use. Hydrogen is a possible candidate to meet this need but carbon-free production of hydrogen needs to be developed. This chapter specifically examines the progress of homogeneous catalysts used in hydrogen production via artificial photosynthesis. Only those catalysts based on earth abundant metals, such as Co, Ni, Fe, and Mo are discussed as inexpensive mass production would require such materials, as opposed to expensive and rare metals, such as Pt, Pd and Rh. Electrocatalytic studies are also discussed as it pertains to the light driven systems and mechanistic insights.

在人口和生活质量提高的推动下，预计本世纪全球能源消耗将急剧增加。为了避免用化石燃料满足这一需求，必须采用新的碳中和能源，其成本和性能要与目前使用的碳源相比具有竞争力。氢是满足该需求的可能候选者，但是需要发展无碳氢的生产。本章专门研究了通过人工光合作用生产氢气的均相催化剂的进展。仅仅讨论了那些基于诸如Co，Ni，Fe和Mo的富含地球的金属的催化剂，因为廉价的大量生产将需要这种材料，而不是昂贵且稀有的金属，例如Pt，Pd和Rh。