A current perspective for photocatalysis towards the hydrogen production from biomass-derived organic substances and water

Recently, an increasing interest has been devoted to produce chemical energy - hydrogen (H-2) by converting sustainable sunlight energy via water splitting and reforming of renewable biomass-derived organic substances. These photocatalytic processes are very promising, sustainable, economic, and environment-friendly. Herein, this article gives a concise overview of photocatalysis to produce H-2 as solar fuel via two approaches: water splitting and reforming of biomass-derived organic substances. For the first approach - photocatalytic water splitting, there are two reaction types have been used, including photoelectrochemical (PEC) and photochemical (PC) cell reactions. For the second approach, biomass-derived oxygenated substrates could undergo selective photocatalytic reforming under renewable solar irradiation. Significant efforts to date have been made for photocatalysts design at the molecular level that can efficiently utilize solar energy and optimize the reaction conditions, including light irradiation, type of sacrificial reagents. Critical challenges, prospects, and the requirement to give more attention to photo-catalysis for producing H-2 are also highlighted. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.