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Impact of Interfaces, and Nanostructure on the Performance of Conjugated Polymer Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production from Water

The direct conversion of sunlight into hydrogen through water splitting, and by converting carbon dioxide into useful chemical building blocks and fuels, has been an active area of research since early reports in the 1970s. Most of the semiconductors that drive these photocatalytic processes have be...

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Autores principales: McQueen, Ewan, Bai, Yang, Sprick, Reiner Sebastian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9739915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36500922
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano12234299
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author McQueen, Ewan
Bai, Yang
Sprick, Reiner Sebastian
author_facet McQueen, Ewan
Bai, Yang
Sprick, Reiner Sebastian
author_sort McQueen, Ewan
collection PubMed
description The direct conversion of sunlight into hydrogen through water splitting, and by converting carbon dioxide into useful chemical building blocks and fuels, has been an active area of research since early reports in the 1970s. Most of the semiconductors that drive these photocatalytic processes have been inorganic semiconductors, but since the first report of carbon nitride organic semiconductors have also been considered. Conjugated materials have been relatively extensively studied as photocatalysts for solar fuels generation over the last 5 years due to the synthetic control over composition and properties. The understanding of materials’ properties, its impact on performance and underlying factors is still in its infancy. Here, we focus on the impact of interfaces, and nanostructure on fundamental processes which significantly contribute to performance in these organic photocatalysts. In particular, we focus on presenting explicit examples in understanding the interface of polymer photocatalysts with water and how it affects performance. Wetting has been shown to be a clear factor and we present strategies for increased wettability in conjugated polymer photocatalysts through modifications of the material. Furthermore, the limited exciton diffusion length in organic polymers has also been identified to affect the performance of these materials. Addressing this, we also discuss how increased internal and external surface areas increase the activity of organic polymer photocatalysts for hydrogen production from water.
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spelling pubmed-97399152022-12-11 Impact of Interfaces, and Nanostructure on the Performance of Conjugated Polymer Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production from Water McQueen, Ewan Bai, Yang Sprick, Reiner Sebastian Nanomaterials (Basel) Review The direct conversion of sunlight into hydrogen through water splitting, and by converting carbon dioxide into useful chemical building blocks and fuels, has been an active area of research since early reports in the 1970s. Most of the semiconductors that drive these photocatalytic processes have been inorganic semiconductors, but since the first report of carbon nitride organic semiconductors have also been considered. Conjugated materials have been relatively extensively studied as photocatalysts for solar fuels generation over the last 5 years due to the synthetic control over composition and properties. The understanding of materials’ properties, its impact on performance and underlying factors is still in its infancy. Here, we focus on the impact of interfaces, and nanostructure on fundamental processes which significantly contribute to performance in these organic photocatalysts. In particular, we focus on presenting explicit examples in understanding the interface of polymer photocatalysts with water and how it affects performance. Wetting has been shown to be a clear factor and we present strategies for increased wettability in conjugated polymer photocatalysts through modifications of the material. Furthermore, the limited exciton diffusion length in organic polymers has also been identified to affect the performance of these materials. Addressing this, we also discuss how increased internal and external surface areas increase the activity of organic polymer photocatalysts for hydrogen production from water. MDPI 2022-12-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9739915/ /pubmed/36500922 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano12234299 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
McQueen, Ewan
Bai, Yang
Sprick, Reiner Sebastian
Impact of Interfaces, and Nanostructure on the Performance of Conjugated Polymer Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production from Water
title Impact of Interfaces, and Nanostructure on the Performance of Conjugated Polymer Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production from Water
title_full Impact of Interfaces, and Nanostructure on the Performance of Conjugated Polymer Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production from Water
title_fullStr Impact of Interfaces, and Nanostructure on the Performance of Conjugated Polymer Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production from Water
title_full_unstemmed Impact of Interfaces, and Nanostructure on the Performance of Conjugated Polymer Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production from Water
title_short Impact of Interfaces, and Nanostructure on the Performance of Conjugated Polymer Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production from Water
title_sort impact of interfaces, and nanostructure on the performance of conjugated polymer photocatalysts for hydrogen production from water
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9739915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36500922
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano12234299
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