Carbon-based H2-production photocatalytic materials

Publication date: Available online 20 April 2016 Source:Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews Author(s): Shaowen Cao, Jiaguo Yu Photocatalytic hydrogen production from water splitting is of promising potential to resolve the energy shortage and environmental concerns. During the past decade, carbon materials have shown great ability to enhance the photocatalytic hydrogen-production performance of semiconductor photocatalysts. This review provides a comprehensive overview of carbon materials such as CNTs, graphene, C60, carbon quantum dots, carbon fibers, activated carbon, carbon black, etc. in enhancing the performance of semiconductor photocatalysts for H2 production from photocatalytic water splitting. The roles of carbon materials including supporting material, increasing adsorption and active sites, electron acceptor and transport channel, cocatalyst, photosensitization, photocatalyst, band gap narrowing effect are explicated in detail. Also, strategies for improving the photocatalytic hydrogen-production efficiency of carbon-based photocatalytic materials are discussed in terms of surface chemical functionalization of the carbon materials, doping effect of the carbon materials and interface engineering between semiconductors and carbon materials. Finally, the concluding remarks and the current challenges are highlighted with some perspectives for the future development of carbon-based photocatalytic materials. Graphical abstract
Source: Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research