In recent years significant effort has been put forth developing homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts for hydrogen production via reduction of water in a wide variety of solutions. Many have been examined under photochemical conditions, demonstrating that hydrogen is formed in the presence of a photosensitizer, sacrificial electron donor, catalyst and water. What is lacking in nearly all of these systems, is a  measure of the quantum efficiency for hydrogen production. This work intends to present an evaluation of some photosensitizer, sacrificial donor systems employed in photochemical hydrogen production systems and introduce a variation that results in generation of strong reductants in solution. In addition, a simple experimental method for determination of hydrogen production quantum yields is presented. Such a system can provide a method for comparing the effectiveness of different catalysts for hydrogen generation under photolytic conditions.

Development of a photochemical system for determining quantum yields for water reduction to hydrogen

244th National Meeting (2012)

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