Research Highlights

Boosting photocatalytic water splitting of polymeric fullerene by reduced dimensionality from 2D monolayer to 1D chain

Cory Jones and Bo Peng

The recent synthesis of monolayer fullerene networks provides new opportunities for photovoltaics and photocatalysis because of their versatile crystal structures for further tailoring of electronic, optical, and chemical function. To shed light on the structural aspects of the photocatalytic water splitting performance of fullerene nanomaterials, we compare the photocatalytic properties of individual polymeric fullerene chains and monolayer fullerene networks from first-principles calculations. We find that the photocatalytic efficiency can be further optimized by reducing the dimensionality from two-dimensional (2D) to one-dimensional (1D). The conduction band edge of the polymeric fullerene chain provides an external potential for the hydrogen reduction reaction much higher than that of its monolayer counterparts over a wider range of pH values, and there are 2 times more surface active sites in the 1D chain than in the 2D networks from a thermodynamic perspective. These observations identify the 1D fullerene polymer as a more promising candidate as a photocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction in comparison to monolayer fullerene networks.

Boosting photocatalytic water splitting of polymeric C₆₀ by reduced dimensionality from 2D monolayer to 1D chain
C Jones and B Peng
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 14 (51) 11768 (2023) [Front Cover]