A metal-free polymeric photocatalyst for hydrogen production from water under visible light

Article abstract

Nature Materials

Published online: 9 November 2008 | doi:10.1038/nmat2317

A metal-free polymeric photocatalyst for hydrogen production from water under visible light

Xinchen Wang^1,2, Kazuhiko Maeda³, Arne Thomas¹, Kazuhiro Takanabe³, Gang Xin³, Johan M. Carlsson⁴, Kazunari Domen³ & Markus Antonietti¹

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Abstract

The production of hydrogen from water using a catalyst and solar energy is an ideal future energy source, independent of fossil reserves. For an economical use of water and solar energy, catalysts that are sufficiently efficient, stable, inexpensive and capable of harvesting light are required. Here, we show that an abundant material, polymeric carbon nitride, can produce hydrogen from water under visible-light irradiation in the presence of a sacrificial donor. Contrary to other conducting polymer semiconductors, carbon nitride is chemically and thermally stable and does not rely on complicated device manufacturing. The results represent an important first step towards photosynthesis in general where artificial conjugated polymer semiconductors can be used as energy transducers.

Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Department of Colloid Chemistry, Research Campus Golm, 14424 Postdam, Germany

1. Research Institute of Photocatalysis, State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Photocatalysis, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China
2. Department of Chemical System Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
3. Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck-Society, Theory Department, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany

Correspondence to: Xinchen Wang^1,2 e-mail: xcwang@fzu.edu.cn

Correspondence to: Kazunari Domen³ e-mail: domen@chemsys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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