Journal
ACS APPLIED ENERGY MATERIALS
Volume 1, Issue 12, Pages 6657-6693Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.8b01345
Keywords
photocatalysis; solar energy; materials; properties; applications
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [U1604121, 21673200]
- XCU
- National Science Foundation [CBET 1703663, CBET 1703655]
- U.S. Department of Energy [DE-EE0008086]
- Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
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Photocatalysis represents a unique class of chemical transformations. It utilizes the energy delivered by light and drives reactions that are difficult, sometimes even impossible, to carry out in dark. When used for thermodynamically uphill reactions such as photosynthesis, photocatalysis promises a sustainable solution to large scale solar energy storage. Despite the longstanding interest in this process and research efforts, existing photocatalysis demonstrations are limited to academic laboratory settings. Chief among the reasons for the slow progress is the lack of suitable photocatalyst materials for large scale applications. For the purpose of effective light absorption, charge separation, and charge transfer, a large number of photocatalytic materials, including conventional semiconductors and emerging photoelectronic materials such as nanoscale plasmonic metal particles, quantum dots, and 2D materials, have been studied. This Review is written to summarize these recent efforts from a broad materials perspective and discuss possible strategies to move forward to practical implementations. We start with a discussion on the fundamental principles that govern photocatalysis in general and then move on to discuss the different classes of photocatalytic materials, covering various aspects of their properties, such as efficiency, stability, scalability, and cost. Afterward, we use model photocatalytic reactions including water splitting, CO2 reduction, and N-2 fixation to demonstrate the applications of these photocatalysts. Our perspectives concerning where the field of photocatalysis is headed toward are provided at the end.
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