School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, 637459, Singapore.
Chem Soc Rev. 2016 May 31;45(11):3039-52. doi: 10.1039/c5cs00729a.
Water splitting driven by sunlight or renewable resource-derived electricity has attracted great attention for sustainable production of hydrogen from water. Current research interest in this field is focused on the development of earth-abundant photo- or electrocatalytic materials with high activity and long-term stability for hydrogen and/or oxygen evolution reactions. Due to their unique properties and characteristics, carbon and related carbon-based materials show great potential to replace some of the existing precious metal catalysts in water splitting technology. This tutorial review summarizes the recent significant progress in the fabrication and application of metal-free carbonaceous materials as photo- or electrocatalysts for water splitting. Synthetic strategies and applications of various carbonaceous materials, including graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as well as other forms of carbon-containing materials, for electrochemical or photochemical water splitting are presented, accompanied by a discussion of the key scientific issues and prospects for the future development of metal-free photo- and electrocatalysts.
光或可再生资源衍生电力驱动的水分解，为可持续地从水中生产氢气引起了广泛关注。目前该领域的研究重点是开发丰富的、具有高活性和长期稳定性的光或电催化材料，用于氢气和/或氧气的析出反应。由于其独特的性质和特点，碳及相关碳基材料在水分解技术中具有取代部分现有贵金属催化剂的巨大潜力。本综述总结了近年来在制备和应用无金属碳质材料作为光或电催化剂用于水分解方面的重要进展。介绍了各种碳质材料（包括石墨相氮化碳（g-C3N4）、石墨烯、碳纳米管（CNT）以及其他形式的含碳材料）的合成策略和应用，用于电化学或光电化学水分解，并讨论了无金属光和电催化剂未来发展的关键科学问题和前景。
