SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE
A bio-inspired strategy for enhanced hydrogen evolution: carbonate ions as hole vehicles to promote carrier separation†
b
Zhengyi
Fu
*a
Abstract
Natural photosynthesis involves a subtle electron transfer mechanism in which freely-moving electron transfer intermediates (plastoquinone and plastocyanin) are capable of effectively separating the photo-generated carriers, and therefore, it has high quantum efficiency. Inspired by this mechanism, in this study, carbonate (CO32−) ions were employed as hole vehicles to promote photo-generated carrier separation, and greatly improved the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity of K4Nb6O17 nanosheets. The hydrogen evolution rate at the optimal concentration of CO32− ions reached 2018 μmol h−1 g−1, which was 16.3 times that of the blank sample (124 μmol h−1 g−1). This marked enhancement was based on the transfer of holes from the photocatalyst to the sacrificial reagent (methanol) via CO32− ions; this process is faster than direct hole transfer between the photocatalyst and sacrificial reagent. This bio-inspired strategy provides a facile and cost-effective approach to improve the solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency of photocatalysts.
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