Carbon Dots in Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion

Solar hydrogen production from catalytic water splitting is one of the many options available to help generate clean power and alleviate the threatening environmental concerns stemming from the use of fossil fuels. During the past decade, carbon dots (CDs) have shown great potential in their application for solar-driven hydrogen production owing to their exceptional photophysical and electrical properties derived from their sp(2)/sp(3) hybridized core structure and rich surface functionality. In this review, we correlate the structural features of CDs with their optical and electronic properties and evaluate key properties for efficient solar energy-conversion applications with an emphasis on photocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis, to shed some light on designing high performance CD-based photosystems.