Bhosale Reshma, Debnath Bharati, Ogale Satishchandra
Department of Environmental Science, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, 411007, India.
Research Institute for Sustainable Energy (TCG-CREST), Salt Lake, Kolkata, 700091, India.
Chem Rec. 2022 Sep;22(9):e202200110. doi: 10.1002/tcr.202200110. Epub 2022 Jun 27.
Semiconductor photocatalysis has received tremendous attention in the past decade as it has shown great promise in the context of clean energy harvesting for environmental remediation. Sunlight is an inexhaustible source of energy available to us throughout the year, although it is rather dilutely dispersed. Semiconductor based photocatalysis presents one of the best ways to harness this source of energy to carry out chemical reactions of interest that require external energy input. Photocatalytic hydrogen generation by splitting of water, CO mitigation, and CO conversion to green fuel have therefore become the highly desirable clean and sustainable processes for a better tomorrow. Although numerous efforts have been made and continue to be expended to search and develop new classes of photocatalyst materials in recent years, several significant challenges still remain to be resolved before photocatalysis can reach its commercial potential. Therefore, major attention is required towards improving the efficiencies of the existing photocatalysts by further manipulating them and parallelly employing newer strategies for novel photocatalyst designs. This personal account aims to provide a broad overview of the field primarily invoking examples of our own research contributions in the field, which include photocatalytic hydrogen generation and CO reduction to value added chemicals. This account reviews the state-of-the-art research activities and scientific possibilities which a functional material can offer if its properties are put to best use through goal-oriented design by combining with other compatible materials. We have addressed fundamental principles of photocatalysis, different kind of functional photocatalysts, critical issues associated with them and various strategies to overcome the related hurdles. It is our hope that this current personal account will provide a platform for young researchers to address the bottleneck issues in the field of photocatalysis and photocatalysts with a sense of clarity, and to find innovative solutions to resolve them by a prudent choice of materials, synthesis protocols, and approaches to boost the photocatalysis output. We emphasize that a targeted or goal-directed photocatalyst nanoengineering as perhaps the only way to realize an early success in this multiparametric domain.
在过去十年中，半导体光催化受到了极大关注，因为它在用于环境修复的清洁能源收集方面展现出了巨大潜力。阳光是我们全年都可获取的取之不尽的能源，尽管其分布相当分散。基于半导体的光催化是利用这种能源来进行需要外部能量输入的相关化学反应的最佳方式之一。因此，通过水分解进行光催化产氢、CO减排以及将CO转化为绿色燃料，已成为实现美好未来的极具吸引力的清洁且可持续的过程。尽管近年来人们已付出诸多努力并持续投入精力来寻找和开发新型光催化剂材料，但在光催化实现其商业潜力之前，仍有几个重大挑战有待解决。因此，需要重点关注通过进一步调控现有光催化剂以及同时采用新策略进行新型光催化剂设计来提高其效率。本个人述评旨在主要借助我们自己在该领域的研究贡献实例，对该领域进行全面概述，这些贡献包括光催化产氢以及将CO还原为增值化学品。本述评回顾了前沿研究活动以及如果通过与其他兼容材料进行面向目标的设计来充分利用其性能，功能材料所能提供的科学可能性。我们阐述了光催化的基本原理、不同类型的功能性光催化剂、与之相关的关键问题以及克服相关障碍的各种策略。我们希望这份当前的个人述评能够为年轻研究人员提供一个平台，使其能够清晰地认识光催化和光催化剂领域的瓶颈问题，并通过谨慎选择材料、合成方案和方法来找到创新解决方案，以提高光催化产量。我们强调，有针对性的或目标导向的光催化剂纳米工程或许是在这个多参数领域早日取得成功的唯一途径。
