Realizing high hydrogen evolution activity under visible light using narrow band gap organic photocatalysts.

ABSTRACT: The design and synthesis of conjugated semiconducting polymers for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution have engendered intense recent interest. However, most reported organic polymer photocatalysts show a relatively broad band gap with weak light absorption ability in the visible light region, which commonly leads to a low photocatalytic activity under visible light. Herein, we synthesize three novel dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]thiophene-S,S-dioxide (DTDO) containing conjugated polymer photocatalysts by a facile C-H arylation coupling polymerization reaction. The resulting polymers show a broad visible light absorption range up to 700 nm and a narrow band gap down to 1.81 eV due to the introduction of the DTDO unit. Benefiting from the donor-acceptor polymer structure and the high content of the DTDO unit, the three-dimensional polymer PyDTDO-3 without the addition of a Pt co-catalyst shows an attractive photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of 16.32 mmol h^-1 g^-1 under visible light irradiation, which is much higher than that of most reported organic polymer photocatalysts under visible light.

SUBMITTER: Han C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8179323 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature