Accumulative charge separation inspired by photosynthesis.
Molecular systems that follow the functional principles of photosynthesis have attracted increasing attention as a method for the direct production of solar fuels. This could give a major carbon-neutral energy contribution to our future society. An outstanding challenge in this research is to couple the light-induced charge separation (which generates a single electron-hole pair) to the multielectron processes of water oxidation and fuel generation. New design considerations are needed to allow for several cycles of photon absorption and charge separation of a single artificial photosystem. Here we demonstrate a molecular system with a regenerative photosensitizer that shows two successive events of light-induced charge separation, leading to high-yield accumulation of redox equivalents on single components without sacrificial agents.
Department of Photochemistry and Molecular Science, Uppsala University, Box 523, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden.
Susanne
S
Karlsson
Julien
J
Boixel
Yann
Y
Pellegrin
Errol
E
Blart
Hans-Christian
HC
Becker
Fabrice
F
Odobel
Leif
L
Hammarström