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Charge transfer observed in light-activated catalyst particles

The movement of electric charges in light-activated catalyst particles is key to the water-splitting reaction, which could be used to generate hydrogen as a renewable fuel. Such movement has now been observed in exquisite detail.
  1. Ulrich Aschauer

    1. Ulrich Aschauer is in the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Bern, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.

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Renewable energy sources are of great interest for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Light-activated catalysts — known as photocatalysts — are promising in this regard, because they convert solar energy to chemical energy that is stored in the bonds of fuel molecules. Progress in this field will require the development of new photocatalytic materials. But future advances will also hinge on an improved understanding of how electric charges are generated and transferred within photocatalyst particles, so that the particles can be rationally tuned for solar-to-fuel conversion. Such insight is challenging to obtain, given the extremely wide range of timescales and length scales involved. Writing in Nature, Chen et al.1 report an impressive advance in the spatio-temporal monitoring of excited charge carriers on single photocatalyst particles; the findings could provide much-needed detail on photocatalytic processes.

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Nature 610, 263-264 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03178-6

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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