Phys.org April 27, 2023
Despite recent progress in designing highly active photocatalysts, inefficient solar energy and mass transfer, the instability of catalysts and reverse reactions impede their practical large-scale applications. Storing solar energy in chemical bonds aided by heterogeneous photocatalysis is desirable for sustainable energy conversion. Researchers in South Korea designed a floatable photocatalytic platform constructed from porous elastomer–hydrogel nanocomposites. The nanocomposites at the air–water interface featured efficient light delivery, facile supply of water and instantaneous gas separation. Consequently, a high hydrogen evolution rate of 163 mmol h–1 m–2 was achieved using Pt/TiO2 cryoaerogel, even without forced convection. When fabricated in an area of 1 m2 and incorporated with economically feasible single-atom Cu/TiO2 photocatalysts, the nanocomposites produced 79.2 ml of hydrogen per day under natural sunlight. Furthermore, long-term stable hydrogen production in seawater and highly turbid water and photo reforming of polyethylene terephthalate demonstrated the potential of the nanocomposites as a commercially viable photocatalytic system…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Computational simulation of the hydrogen production by the nanocomposites. Credit: Nature Nanotechnology (2023)Â