Research in the field of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, namely through water reduction has seen a resurgence in the last decade as the desire for alternative fuels has expanded. Efforts focusing on generating systems for green hydrogen range broadly across the field of catalysis, including electrocatalytic designs, photoelectrocatalytic systems, and photocatalytic systems including both homogeneous and heterogeneous photocatalysts and cocatalysts. The experimental space encompassing all reaction conditions for even just a homogenous photosensitized water reduction reaction is massive. Classic serial experimentation for the elucidation of promising candidates and optimization of reaction conditions falls short of the needed quantity of experiments due to inherent constraints in time and effort. Through the development of parallelized tools for photocatalytic experimentation, including the production of a 108 well parallel reactor which measures hydrogen through colorimetric methods, we have made experimentation in this field increasingly rapid, allowing for large datasets to be used toward rapid optimization of reaction conditions for given photosensitizer or cocatalyst moieties, the elucidation of structure activity relationships in iridium (III) complex photosensitizers and cobalt complex water reduction cocatalysts, the identification of promising monometallic and bimetallic colloidal cocatalyst species, as well as determination of the effects of stabilizing ligands for in situ synthesized colloidal cocatalysts.

Applications of parallelization in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution using homogeneous and colloidal cocatalysts

ACS Fall 2021

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