Steering Photoelectrons Excited in Carbon Dots into Platinum Cluster Catalyst for Solar-Driven Hydrogen Production.

ABSTRACT: In composite photosynthetic systems, one most primary promise is to pursue the effect coupling among light harvesting, charge transfer, and catalytic kinetics. Herein, this study designs the reduced carbon dots (r-CDs) as both photon harvesters and photoelectron donors in combination with the platinum (Pt) clusters and fabricated the function-integrated r-CD/Pt photocatalyst through a photochemical route to control the anchoring of Pt clusters on r-CDs' surface for solar-driven hydrogen (H₂) generation. In the obtained r-CD/Pt composite, the r-CDs absorb solar photons and transform them into energetic electrons, which transfer to the Pt clusters with favorable charge separation for H₂ evolution reaction (HER). As a result, the efficient coupling of respective natures from r-CDs in photon harvesting and Pt in proton reduction is achieved through well-steered photoelectron transfer in the r-CD/Pt system to cultivate a remarkable and stable photocatalytic H₂ evolution activity with an average rate of 681 µmol g^-1 h^-1. This work integrates two functional components into an effective HER photocatalyst and gains deep insights into the regulation of the function coupling in composite photosynthetic systems.

SUBMITTER: Xu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5737228 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature