Photocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Under Visible Light Mediated by Molecular Heterostructures

Overview

Journal Molecules

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Biology

Date 2023 Nov 25

PMID 38005221

Authors

Zhaoqi Shen

Yujie Zhang

Guang Zhang

Shiyong Liu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Due to their structural and property tunability, semiconductive conjugated polymers (CPs) have emerged as promising candidates for photocatalytic water splitting. Compared with inorganic materials, the photocatalytic performance of mono-component polymers was limited by the fast recombination of photoexcited charge carriers, and they always needed to catch up to expectations. To this end, researchers established molecular donor-acceptor heterostructures, which could notably promote oxygen production efficiency due to their more effective charge carrier separation. In this work, easy Schiff base reactions between side-chain -CHO groups and terminal -NH groups were used to introduce benzene and perylene diimide (PDI) into the molecular heterostructure to serve as electron donors (D) and electron acceptors (A). In particular, for the first time, we employed the molecular heterostructures of CPs to promote photocatalytic O production. One prepared molecular heterostructure was demonstrated to improve oxygen generation rate (up to 0.53 mmol g h) through visible light-driven water splitting. Interestingly, based on the photoelectric properties, a stepwise two-electron/two-electron pathway constituted the photocatalytic mechanism for oxygen production with the molecular heterostructure. These results provide insights into designing and fabricating high-performance molecular heterostructures for photocatalytic oxygen production.

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