Volume 250, 2024

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction by topologically matched polymer–polymer heterojunction nanosheets

Abstract

Conversion of solar energy into chemical fuel can be achieved through a number of routes but direct conversion, via photocatalysis, is potentially the simplest and cheapest route to the transformation of low-value substances, water and CO2, to useful chemical fuels or feedstocks such as hydrogen, formate, methanol, and syngas. 2D polymers, including carbon nitrides and COFs, have emerged as one of the most promising classes of organic photocatalysts for solar fuels production due to their energetic tunability, charge transport properties and robustness. They are, however, difficult to process and so there have been limited studies into the formation of heterojunction materials incorporating these components. In this work we use our novel templating approach to combine topologically matched imine-based donor polymers with acceptor polymers formed through Knoevenagel condensation. An efficient heterojunction interface was formed by matching the isostructural nodes and linkers that make up the D1 and A1 semiconductors and this was reflected in the increased photocatalytic activity of the heterojunction material T1. Tuning of the templating synthesis route to give heterojunctions with optimised donor : acceptor ratios, as well as the photocatalytic conditions, resulted in CO production rates that were between 1.5 and 10 times higher than those of the individual polymers. A further set of polymers A5 and D5 were developed with more optimised structures for CO2 reduction including increased overpotential for the reduction reaction and the presence of co-catalyst chelating groups. These had increased activity compared to the group 1 family and again showed higher activity for CO production by the templated heterojunction, T5, than either individual component or a physical mixture of the donor and acceptor.

Graphical abstract: Photocatalytic CO2 reduction by topologically matched polymer–polymer heterojunction nanosheets

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Jul 2023
Accepted
03 Aug 2023
First published
15 Nov 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Faraday Discuss., 2024,250, 251-262

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction by topologically matched polymer–polymer heterojunction nanosheets

C. M. Aitchison, Y. Zhang, W. Lu and I. McCulloch, Faraday Discuss., 2024, 250, 251 DOI: 10.1039/D3FD00143A

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