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Boosting Photocatalytic Water Splitting of Polymeric C60 by Reduced Dimensionality from Two-Dimensional Monolayer to One-Dimensional Chain.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Jones, Cory 

Abstract

The recent synthesis of monolayer fullerene networks (Hou, L., et al. Nature 2022, 606, 507) provides new opportunities for photovoltaics and photocatalysis because of their versatile crystal structures for further tailoring of electronic, optical, and chemical function. To shed light on the structural aspects of the photocatalytic water splitting performance of fullerene nanomaterials, we compare the photocatalytic properties of individual polymeric fullerene chains and monolayer fullerene networks from first-principles calculations. We find that the photocatalytic efficiency can be further optimized by reducing the dimensionality from two-dimensional (2D) to one-dimensional (1D). The conduction band edge of the polymeric C60 chain provides an external potential for the hydrogen reduction reaction much higher than that of its monolayer counterparts over a wider range of pH values, and there are 2 times more surface active sites in the 1D chain than in the 2D networks from a thermodynamic perspective. These observations identify the 1D fullerene polymer as a more promising candidate as a photocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction in comparison to monolayer fullerene networks.

Description

Keywords

3403 Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry, 34 Chemical Sciences, 3406 Physical Chemistry, 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Journal Title

J Phys Chem Lett

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1948-7185
1948-7185

Volume Title

Publisher

American Chemical Society (ACS)
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P020259/1)
EPSRC (EP/T022159/1)