Shape‐ and Size‐Controlled Nanomaterials for Artificial Photosynthesis

Abstract

Nanomaterials with various shapes and sizes have been developed to mimic functions of photosynthesis in which solar energy conversion is achieved by using nanosized proteins with controlled shapes and sizes. Artificial photosynthesis consists of light-harvesting and charge-separation processes together with catalytic units of water oxidation and reduction. Nanosized mesoporous silica-alumina was utilized to encapsulate organic charge-separation molecules inside the nanospace to elongate the lifetimes of the charge-separated states, as observed in the photosynthetic reaction centers. Metal nanoparticles with controlled shapes and sizes have also been utilized as efficient catalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water with reductants by using electron donor-acceptor organic molecules as photocatalysts. The control of the shape and size of metal nanoparticles plays a very important role in achieving high catalytic performance in catalytic hydrogen evolution in water reduction and also in catalytic oxygen evolution in water oxidation.

Electrolyte-less design of PEC cells for solar fuels: Prospects and open issues in the development of cells and related catalytic electrodes

“…Many novel synthesis procedures for nanomaterials, including for energy applications, are available today [6,9,[71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82], although effort is still necessary for a better understanding of the relationships between nanoarchitecture and functional behavior [45b, 76,[82][83][84]. In addition, the characteristics of these nanomaterials are often not linked to the specific needs for the design of advanced PEC solar cells.…”

Enhancement of hydrogen production using photoactive nanoparticles on a photochemically inert photonic macroporous support

“…In these systems enhancement is maximized when the blue edge of the 111 stop band overlaps with the onset of the photocatalyst absorption. In contrast to photonic photocatalysts, decorating a photonic host with photoactive nanoparticles provides the opportunity to independently optimize optical enhancement and parameters more traditional to heterogeneous catalysis, including nanoparticle catalyst size and morphology, 33,34 and support-nanoparticle interaction. 35 …”

Solar Production of Fuels from Water and CO2: Perspectives and Opportunities for a Sustainable Use of Renewable Energy

“…Molecular assemblies bio-inspired from photosynthesis have been studied by various research groups [86]. These systems typically contain a chromophore, such as a porphyrin, which perform the first step of light harvesting.…”