This review summarizes the recent advances in light driven catalytic H2 evolution and CO2 reduction systems towards the production of solar fuels, utilizing porphyrin or phthalocyanine derivatives.

based DSPEC using a zinc porphyrin (ZnP) sensitizer and a TEMPO organo-catalyst that quite efficiently catalyzes light driven oxidation of methoxybenzyl alcohol into aldehyde. Two dyads ZnP-TEMPO, differing by the anchoring group (carboxylic acid and hydroxamic acid) on ZnP, were prepared and their electrochemical, absorption, emission properties were recorded and quantum chemical modelling was realized. The photovoltaic performances in DSSCs were first examined in order to optimize the dyeing conditions and compare the relative efficiencies of the compounds. The dyads substituted with TEMPO outperform the reference zinc porphyrin lacking TEMPO with a much higher Jsc and Voc. The photocatalytic properties after immobilization on TiO 2 nanocrystalline films towards para-methoxy benzyl alcohol oxidation were explored in borate buffer and in acetonitrile electrolyte. In borate buffer, the optimal pH was 8 and using the dyad ZnP-TEMPO anchored with hydroxamic acid, para-methoxy benzaldehyde was selectively produced with average photocurrent density of 200 A/cm 2 , a faradaic efficiency of 82%, a TON of 26, and a TOF of 47 h -1 . In acetonitrile in presence of 0.1 M of N-methyl-imidazole, the same dyad gives an average photocurrent density of about 100 A/cm 2 , a faradaic efficiency of 76%, a TON of 13, and a TOF of 24 h -1 . The stability of the anchor is crucial in acetonitrile electrolyte, where the dyad is quite soluble, since only the dyad functionalized with hydroxamic acid is compatible with these organic solvent conditions. Overall this study paves the way to the development of more efficient and probably more stable TiO 2 based DSPECs for alcohol oxidation that could advantageously complement those devoted to water oxidation.

Carbon dots and nitrogen doped carbon dots were effectively synthesized and characterized. Their use as H2 light harvesters was examined in the presence of three different cobalt-based catalysts and tris(carboxyethyl)phosphine/ascorbic...

In this work a peptide nucleic acid has been covalently linked with porphyrin and boron-dipyrromethene exhibiting self assembly properties and light-harvesting capability.