Challenges for photocatalytic overall water splitting

The hydrogen economy is a sunrise industry, which is considered the ultimate solution to power the future society. Photocatalytic overall water splitting is projected as a potential technology for H2 production. However, its performance is still far from meeting the criteria for large-scale production. This paper argues that photocatalytic overall water splitting is theoretically and practically hard to achieve. The limiting factors, including unfavorable thermodynamics, slow kinetics, dissolved oxygen, and rapid backward reaction, are discussed. This paper is expected to give readers a better understanding of the photocatalytic overall water splitting and analyze the associated challenges in every subtle aspect.

Automated summary

Photocatalytic overall water splitting is a promising technology for hydrogen production, but its current performance is insufficient for large-scale production. This paper provides a theoretical and practical analysis of the challenges associated with photocatalytic overall water splitting, including unfavorable thermodynamics, slow kinetics, dissolved oxygen, and rapid backward reaction.