Enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Photocatalysts formed from a single organic semiconductor typically suffer from inefficient intrinsic charge generation, which leads to low photocatalytic activities. We demonstrate that incorporating a heterojunction between a donor polymer (PTB7-Th) and non-fullerene acceptor (EH-IDTBR) in organic nanoparticles (NPs) can result in hydrogen evolution photocatalysts with greatly enhanced photocatalytic activity. Control of the nanomorphology of these NPs was achieved by varying the stabilizing surfactant employed during NP fabrication, converting it from a core–shell structure to an intermixed donor/acceptor blend and increasing H2 evolution by an order of magnitude. The resulting photocatalysts display an unprecedentedly high H2 evolution rate of over 60,000 µmol h−1 g−1 under 350 to 800 nm illumination, and external quantum efficiencies over 6% in the region of maximum solar photon flux.
Date Issued
2020-05
Date Acceptance
2019-12-16
Citation
Nature Materials, 2020, 19 (5), pp.559-565
ISSN
1476-1122
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
559
End Page
565
Journal / Book Title
Nature Materials
Volume
19
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2020. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0591-1
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000510823100008&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Technology
Chemistry, Physical
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
Physics, Condensed Matter
Chemistry
Materials Science
Physics
ANGLE NEUTRON-SCATTERING
POLYMER DOTS
WATER
CATALYSTS
EMULSION
TIO2
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-02-03