Side-chain tuning in conjugated polymer photocatalysts for improved hydrogen production from water
Type
ArticleAuthors
Woods, Duncan J.Hillman, Sam A.J.
Pearce, Drew
Wilbraham, Liam
Flagg, Lucas Q.

Duffy, Warren

McCulloch, Iain

Durrant, James R.

Guilbert, Anne A.Y.
Zwijnenburg, Martijn A.

Sprick, Reiner Sebastian

Nelson, Jenny

Cooper, Andrew I.

KAUST Department
Technology TransferChemical Science Program
KAUST Solar Center (KSC)
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
KAUST Grant Number
OSR-2015-CRG4-2572Date
2020Submitted Date
2020-04-17Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/664555
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Structure-property-activity relationships in solution processable polymer photocatalysts for hydrogen production from water were probed by varying the chemical structure of both the polymer side-chains and the polymer backbone. In both cases, the photocatalytic performance depends strongly on the inclusion of more polar groups, such as dibenzo[b,d]thiophene sulfone backbone units or oligo(ethylene glycol) side-chains. We used optical, spectroscopic, and structural characterisation techniques to understand the different catalytic activities of these systems. We find that although polar groups improve the wettability of the material with water in all cases, backbone and side-chain modifications affect photocatalytic performance in different ways: the inclusion of dibenzo[b,d]thiophene sulfone backbone units improves the thermodynamic driving force for hole transfer to the sacrificial donor, while the inclusion of oligo ethylene glycol side-chains aids the degree of polymer swelling and also extends the electron polaron lifetime. The best performing material, FS-TEG, exhibits a HER of 72.5 μmol h-1 for 25 mg photocatalyst (2.9 mmol g-1 h-1) when dispersed in the presence of a sacrificial donor and illuminated with λ > 420 nm light, corresponding to a hydrogen evolution EQE of 10% at 420 nm. When cast as a thin film, this HER was further boosted to 13.9 mmol g-1 h-1 (3.0 mmol m-2 h-1), which is among the highest rates in this field.Citation
Woods, D. J., Hillman, S. A. J., Pearce, D., Wilbraham, L., Flagg, L. Q., Duffy, W., … Cooper, A. I. (2020). Side-chain tuning in conjugated polymer photocatalysts for improved hydrogen production from water. Energy & Environmental Science, 13(6), 1843–1855. doi:10.1039/d0ee01213kSponsors
AIC, RSS, MAZ, LW, and DW acknowledge the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for funding via grant EP/N004884/1. JN and DP acknowledge funding from the EPSRC via grants EP/P005543/1 and EP/R023581/1. AAYG thanks the EPSRC for award of a research fellowship (EP/P00928X/1). SJH thanks the EPSRC for a Centre for Doctoral Training post-graduate studentship (EP/L016702/1). JN also thanks the European Research Council for support under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 742708) and the Imperial College Research Computing Service for computational resources. JD and IM acknowledge financial support from the KAUST award OSR-2015-CRG4-2572. LQF acknowledges funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF DMR-1607242) and the NSF DMREF (award number 1629369).Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)Journal
Energy and Environmental ScienceAdditional Links
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=D0EE01213Kae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1039/d0ee01213k
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