An Artificial Leaf with Patterned Photocatalysts for Sunlight-Driven Water Splitting

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024-09, Vol.146 (41), p.28482-28490
• Main Authors: Zhen, Chao, Zhu, Honglei, Chen, Ruotian, Zheng, Zhaoke, Fan, Fengtao, Li, Bei, Xu, Xiaoxiang, Du, Yufei, Cheng, Hui-Ming, Domen, Kazunari, Liu, Gang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c10807

Plant leaves can turn entirely absorbed light into chemical energy due to their spatially separated photosystems I and II in the thylakoid membrane that enables unidirectional Z-scheme type charge transfer between them. In artificial systems that mimic leaves, a lack of spatial and interfacial control of active units (i.e., hydrogen evolution photocatalyst/HEP and oxygen evolution photocatalyst/OEP) introduces competitive charge transfer channels between them, resulting in deficient Z-scheme type charge transfer. Herein, we demonstrate that a patterned photocatalyst sheet, namely, an artificial leaf, comprising an ordered and separated distribution of the OEP and HEP strips on a conductive substrate, achieves unidirectional Z-scheme type charge transfer as the leaves do. It represents a next-generation photocatalytic system that mimics the leaves to bring breakthrough in photocatalytic over water splitting performance with the combination of highly active HEP and OEP photocatalysts, opening up a promising avenue toward solar energy conversion by artificial photosynthesis.