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Visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution using nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dot-implanted polymer dots as metal-free photocatalysts

Research Authors
Mohamed Hammad Elsayed, Jayachandran Jayakumar, Mohamed Abdellah, Tharwat Hassan Mansoure, Kaibo Zheng, Ahmed M. Elewa, Chih-Li Chang, Li-Yu Ting, Wei-Cheng Lin, Hsiao-hua Yu, Wen-Hsin Wang, Chih-Chia Chung, Ho-Hsiu Chou
Research Abstract

Given the photocatalytic properties of semiconducting polymers and carbon quantum dots (CQDs), we report a new structure for a metal-free photocatalytic system with a promising efficiency for hydrogen production through the combination of an organic semiconducting polymer (PFTBTA) and N-doped carbon quantum dots (NCQDs) covered by PS-PEGCOOH to produce heterostructured photocatalysts in the form of polymer dots (Pdots). This design could provide strong interactions between the two materials owing to the space confinement effect in nanometer-sized Pdots. Small particle size NCQDs are easy to insert inside the Pdot, which leads to an increase in the stability of the Pdot structure and enhances the hydrogen evolution rate by approximately 5-fold over that of pure PFTBTA Pdots. The photophysics and the mechanism behind the catalytic activity of our design are investigated by transient absorption measurement, demonstrating the role of NCQDs to enhance the charge separation and the photocatalytic efficiency of the PFTBTA Pdot.

Research Department
Research Journal
Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
Research Publisher
Elsevier
Research Rank
1
Research Vol
283
Research Website
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0926337320310766
Research Year
2020
Research Pages
119659