title: Photoactive PDI-cobalt complex immobilized on reduced graphene oxide for photoelectrochemical water splitting.
abstract: We report the synthesis of a perylene derivative (perylene tetracarboxylic di(propyl imidazole), abbreviated as PDI) that is coordinated with Co(II) ions to form a coordination polymer [PDI-Co(Cl)2(H2O)2]n (abbreviated as PDI-Co). The PDI-Co complex combines the photoactivity of the perylene dye with the electrocatalytic activity of the "Co(II)" center for photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). To improve charge transfer interactions, the PDI-Co complex is immobilized on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) via noncovalent interactions to form the rGO-PDI-Co complex. The composite shows good performance in multiple cycle testing and the turnover number (TON vs Co(II)) of this hybrid material for hydrogen evolution reaction (754 after 5 h) is considerably higher than previously reported dye-sensitized cobalt-based catalysts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Graphene Research Centre (GRC), National University of Singapore , 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors.forename: Janardhan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Balapanuru
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: Chenliang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Zhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hai
authors.forename: Qing-Hua
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Kian Ping
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Loh
keywords: cobalt; graphene; hydrogen evolution reaction; perylene; photoelectrochemical water splitting