Achieving a solar-to-chemical efficiency of 3.6% in ambient conditions by inhibiting interlayer charges transport.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38926358.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-49373-z and PMC identifier 11208529.
- 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
Efficiently converting solar energy into chemical energy remains a formidable challenge in artificial photosynthetic systems. To date, rarely has an artificial photosynthetic system operating in the open air surpassed the highest solar-to-biomass conversion efficiency (1%) observed in plants. In this study, we present a three-dimension polymeric photocatalyst achieving a solar-to-H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> conversion efficiency of 3.6% under ambient conditions, including real water, open air, and room temperature. The impressive performance is attributed to the efficient storage of electrons inside materials via expeditious intramolecular charge transfer, and the fast extraction of the stored electrons by O<sub>2</sub> that can diffuse into the internal pores of the self-supporting three-dimensional material. This construction strategy suppresses the interlayer transfer of excitons, polarizers and carriers, effectively increases the utilization of internal excitons to 82%. This breakthrough provides a perspective to substantially enhance photocatalytic performance and bear substantial implications for sustainable energy generation and environmental remediation.