Perylenetetracarboxylic acid nanosheets with internal electric fields and anisotropic charge migration for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35440732.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-29826-z and PMC identifier 9018690.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Highly efficient hydrogen evolution reactions carried out via photocatalysis using solar light remain a formidable challenge. Herein, perylenetetracarboxylic acid nanosheets with a monolayer thickness of ~1.5 nm were synthesized and shown to be active hydrogen evolution photocatalysts with production rates of 118.9 mmol g<sup>-1</sup> h<sup>-1</sup><sub>.</sub> The carboxyl groups increased the intensity of the internal electric fields of perylenetetracarboxylic acid from the perylene center to the carboxyl border by 10.3 times to promote charge-carrier separation. The photogenerated electrons and holes migrated to the edge and plane, respectively, to weaken charge-carrier recombination. Moreover, the perylenetetracarboxylic acid reduction potential increases from -0.47 V to -1.13 V due to the decreased molecular conjugation and enhances the reduction ability. In addition, the carboxyl groups created hydrophilic sites. This work provides a strategy to engineer the molecular structures of future efficient photocatalysts.