Issue 14, 2023

Alternatives to water oxidation in the photocatalytic water splitting reaction for solar hydrogen production

Abstract

The photocatalytic water splitting process to produce H2 is an attractive approach to meet energy demands while achieving carbon emission reduction targets. However, none of the current photocatalytic devices meets the criteria for practical sustainable H2 production due to their insufficient efficiency and the resulting high H2 cost. Economic viability may be achieved by simultaneously producing more valuable products than O2 or integrating with reforming processes of real waste streams, such as plastic and food waste. Research over the past decade has begun to investigate the possibility of replacing water oxidation with more kinetically and thermodynamically facile oxidation reactions. We summarize how various alternative photo-oxidation reactions can be combined with proton reduction in photocatalysis to achieve chemical valorization with concurrent H2 production. By examining the current advantages and challenges of these oxidation reactions, we intend to demonstrate that these technologies would contribute to providing H2 energy, while also producing high-value chemicals for a sustainable chemical industry and eliminating waste.

Graphical abstract: Alternatives to water oxidation in the photocatalytic water splitting reaction for solar hydrogen production

Article information

Article type
Minireview
Submitted
17 yan 2023
Accepted
04 mar 2023
First published
07 mar 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale, 2023,15, 6521-6535

Alternatives to water oxidation in the photocatalytic water splitting reaction for solar hydrogen production

Y. Wu, T. Sakurai, T. Adachi and Q. Wang, Nanoscale, 2023, 15, 6521 DOI: 10.1039/D3NR00260H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements