Catechol-TiO2 hybrids for photocatalytic H2 production and photocathode assembly

Another step closer to sustainable fuels

23 October 2018

A new and inexpensive method of photocatalysis could lead to the production of sustainable fuels by solar energy.

Dye-sensitized photocatalysis has proved very efficient in using visible light to produce clean and renewable hydrogen energy from water, and for making photoanodes for dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells.

Although photocathodes made from dye-sensitized photocatalysis systems hold promise for the development of efficient and cost-effective photocatalysts, creating them has been challenging.

Now, scientists in the UK and Japan, including researchers from the Advanced Institute for Materials Research at Tohoku University in Japan, have developed a dye-sensitized photocatalyst that uses an organic compound called catechol bound to a molecule of titanium dioxide to act as a photosensitizer. They then formed a photocathode by transferring this dye-sensitized titanium dioxide to an electrode.

The advance is an important step in the development of dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells.

Supported content

References

1. Chemical Communications 53, 12638 (2017). doi: 10.1039/c7cc05094a