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Recent progress for hydrogen production by photocatalytic natural or simulated seawater splitting

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Abstract

Solar energy is an inexhaustible renewable energy source. Among the various methods for solar energy conversion, photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) production is considered as one of the most promising ways. Since Fujishima pioneered this field in 1972, photocatalytic water splitting to produce H2 has received widespread attention. Up to now, abundant semiconductor materials have been explored as photocatalysts for pure water splitting to produce H2. However, photocatalytic seawater splitting is more in line with the concept of sustainable development, which can greatly alleviate the problem of limited freshwater resource. At present, only few studies have focused on the process of H2 production by photocatalytic seawater splitting due to the complex composition of seawater and lack of suitable photocatalysts. In this review, we outline the most recent advances in photocatalytic seawater splitting. In particular, we introduce the H2 production photocatalysts, underlying mechanism of ions in seawater on photocatalytic seawater splitting, current challenges and future potential advances for this exciting field.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21703046 and 21972028), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Science (No. XDB36000000) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2016YFF0203803).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Jining Zhang, Shuang Cao & Lingyu Piao

  2. School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Jining Zhang & Wenping Hu

  3. Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Lingyu Piao

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  1. Jining Zhang
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Correspondence to Shuang Cao or Lingyu Piao.

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Zhang, J., Hu, W., Cao, S. et al. Recent progress for hydrogen production by photocatalytic natural or simulated seawater splitting. Nano Res. 13, 2313–2322 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2880-z

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