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Bandgap Engineering of Organic Semiconductors for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Water Splitting
Author(s) -
Wang Yiou,
Silveri Fabrizio,
Bayazit Mustafa K.,
Ruan Qiushi,
Li Yaomin,
Xie Jijia,
Catlow C. Richard A.,
Tang Junwang
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.201801084
Subject(s) - materials science , photocatalysis , band gap , water splitting , semiconductor , polymer , polymerization , quantum efficiency , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , photoinduced charge separation , optoelectronics , photochemistry , artificial photosynthesis , catalysis , organic chemistry , composite material , chemistry , engineering
The bandgap engineering of semiconductors, in particular low‐cost organic/polymeric photocatalysts could directly influence their behavior in visible photon harvesting. However, an effective and rational pathway to stepwise change of the bandgap of an organic/polymeric photocatalyst is still very challenging. An efficient strategy is demonstrated to tailor the bandgap from 2.7 eV to 1.9 eV of organic photocatalysts by carefully manipulating the linker/terminal atoms in the chains via innovatively designed polymerization. These polymers work in a stable and efficient manner for both H 2 and O 2 evolution at ambient conditions (420 nm < λ < 710 nm), exhibiting up to 18 times higher hydrogen evolution rate (HER) than a reference photocatalyst g‐C 3 N 4 and leading to high apparent quantum yields (AQYs) of 8.6%/2.5% at 420/500 nm, respectively. For the oxygen evolution rate (OER), the optimal polymer shows 19 times higher activity compared to g‐C 3 N 4 with excellent AQYs of 4.3%/1.0% at 420/500 nm. Both theoretical modeling and spectroscopic results indicate that such remarkable enhancement is due to the increased light harvesting and improved charge separation. This strategy thus paves a novel avenue to fabricate highly efficient organic/polymeric photocatalysts with precisely tunable operation windows and enhanced charge separation.