title: SWCNT Photocatalyst for Hydrogen Production from Water upon Photoexcitation of (8, 3) SWCNT at 680-nm Light.
abstract: Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are potentially strong optical absorbers with tunable absorption bands depending on their chiral indices (n, m). Their application for solar energy conversion is difficult because of the large binding energy (>100 meV) of electron-hole pairs, known as excitons, produced by optical absorption. Recent development of photovoltaic devices based on SWCNTs as light-absorbing components have shown that the creation of heterojunctions by pairing chirality-controlled SWCNTs with C60is the key for high power conversion efficiency. In contrast to thin film devices, photocatalytic reactions in a dispersion/solution system triggered by the photoexcitation of SWCNTs have never been reported due to the difficulty of the construction of a well-ordered surface on SWCNTs. Here, we show a clear-cut example of a SWCNT photocatalyst producing H2from water. Self-organization of a fullerodendron on the SWCNT core affords water-dispersible coaxial nanowires possessing SWCNT/C60heterojunctions, of which a dendron shell can act as support of a co-catalyst for H2evolution. Because the band offset between the LUMO levels of (8, 3)SWCNT and C60satisfactorily exceeds the exciton binding energy to allow efficient exciton dissociation, the (8, 3)SWCNT/fullerodendron coaxial photocatalyst shows H2-evolving activity (QY = 0.015) upon 680-nm illumination, which is E22absorption of (8, 3) SWCNT.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science; Okayama University; 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan.
authors.forename: Noritake
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Murakami
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science; Okayama University; 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuto
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tango
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Sciences and Technology for Innovation; Yamaguchi University, 2-16-1 Tokiwadai, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8611, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miyake
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science; Okayama University; 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tajima
authors.affiliation: Research Core for Interdisciplinary Sciences; Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuta
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishina
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry; Faculty of Science Division I; Tokyo University of Science, 1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8601, Japan.
authors.forename: Wataru
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kurashige
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry; Faculty of Science Division I; Tokyo University of Science, 1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8601, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Negishi
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science; Okayama University; 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan.
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takaguchi