A novel {FeI-FeII-FeII-FeI} iron thiolate carbonyl assembly which electrocatalyses hydrogen evolution.

A novel tetra-iron thiolate carbonyl assembly is described in which two dithiolate tetracarbonyl di-iron centres with a 'butterfly' configuration of the {2Fe3S}-cores are fused by two bridging thiolates which form a central planar 2Fe2S unit and comprise the first example of a chain of four metal-metal bonded iron atoms supported by a bridging sulfur framework; the assembly electrocatalyses hydrogen evolution.