One of the most important limitations of the application of photocatalysis for water decomposition is that the process employing pure water is usually rather inefficient or is not even operative at all. This is related to the fact that the simultaneous reduction and oxidation of water is a complex multistep reaction involving four electrons. Using sacrificial molecules as electron donors (acceptors) can, for example, remarkably improve the H2 (O2) production,  as holes (electrons) are scavenged by these molecules and charge carrier recombination can be greatly reduced. Nevertheless, the possible involvement of the sacrificial molecules in the actual water splitting mechanism is in most cases not discussed at all. We are convinced that it is most certainly highly indicated to study the role of these sacrificial agents in detail. For example, the possible catalytic role of Ag+ and Fe3+ is proposed here, however, this could even be part of a much more general mechanism thus opening up new design features for photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical energy-to fuel conversion systems.

Sacrificing mechanistic information: The undesired role of sacrificial reagents in photocatalysis

247th National Meeting (2014)

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