Sulfur- and boron-containing porous donor-acceptor polymers for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

11 August 2022, Version 2
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Photocatalytic water-splitting provides a way to store solar energy as hydrogen gas, and hence, is an attractive alternative to energy-intensive electrolysis of water. Microporous polymer networks are an interesting class of heterogeneous photocatalysts due to the chemical modularity of their optically active backbone and their guest-accessible pore-structure. Photocatalytic action depends on efficient separation of photoexcited electron-hole pairs, and recently, it was discovered that this separation can be improved by incorporation of donor-acceptor motifs into the polymer backbones. While there are many examples of electron donors, there is little variety in electron acceptor motifs. Here, we present a series of microporous donor-acceptor networks that contain electron-deficient boron moieties (triarylborane) as the electron acceptors and sulfur moieties (thiophene) as the donors. Under sacrificial conditions, these sulfur- and boron-containing polymers (SBPs) show rates of hydrogen evolution up to 113.9 mmol h-1 g-1. Conventionally used platinum co-catalyst does not contribute meaningfully to the photocatalytic action. Instead, palladium that is incorporated during the stage of polymer synthesis acts as the co-catalyst.

Keywords

hydrogen evolution
water-splitting
microporous polymer network
donor-acceptor
triarylborane

Supplementary materials

Title
Description
Actions
Title
Sulfur- and boron-containing porous donor-acceptor polymers for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
Description
Supporting Information for "Sulfur- and boron-containing porous donor-acceptor polymers for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution"
Actions
Title
Hydrogen evolution using the sulfur- and boron-containing polymer TT-TAB
Description
Hydrogen evolution using the sulfur- and boron-containing polymer TT-TAB. Supporting Information for "Sulfur- and boron-containing porous donor-acceptor polymers for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution"
Actions

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.