Smart Utilization of Carbon Dots in Semiconductor Photocatalysis.
Efficient capture of solar energy will be critical to meeting the energy needs of the future. Semiconductor photocatalysis is expected to make an important contribution in this regard, delivering both energy carriers (especially H2) and valuable chemical feedstocks under direct sunlight. Over the past few years, carbon dots (CDs) have emerged as a promising new class of metal-free photocatalyst, displaying semiconductor-like photoelectric properties and showing excellent performance in a wide variety of photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic applications owing to their ease of synthesis, unique structure, adjustable composition, ease of surface functionalization, outstanding electron-transfer efficiency and tunable light-harvesting range (from deep UV to the near-infrared). Here, recent advances in the rational design of CDs-based photocatalysts are highlighted and their applications in photocatalytic environmental remediation, water splitting into hydrogen, CO2reduction, and organic synthesis are discussed.
Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Huijun
H
Yu
Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
Run
R
Shi
Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Yufei
Y
Zhao
School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand.
Geoffrey I N
GI
Waterhouse
Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Li-Zhu
LZ
Wu
Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Chen-Ho
CH
Tung
Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Tierui
T
Zhang
CO2 reduction; H2 evolution; carbon dots; graphene quantum dots; photocatalysis