CHAPTER 10: Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation

The depletion of fossil fuel and serious climate and environmental problems associated with their combustion have led to increasing interest in the photocatalytic H₂ generation from water splitting by using earth-abundant SCs and solar energy because the photocatalytic H₂ production, as a promising strategy, could solve both solar energy store and green production of hydrogen fuel. This chapter summarizes the fundamentals and many important achievements in photocatalytic hydrogen production over heterogeneous photocatalysts from the highly efficient photocatalyst design point of view. The focus will be on various improving methods and key design parameters for photocatalytic H₂ evolution to enhance the overall efficiency, including promoted charge separation and transport, accelerated H₂-evolution kinetics and increased stability of photocatalysts. This chapter may open some potential opportunities for designing and understanding highly effective photocatalytic systems for H₂- and O₂-evolution half reactions as well as overall water splitting.