Improving the Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation Using Nonaggregated Zinc Phthalocyanines
Eminegül Genç Acar, Abdulcelil Yüzer, Gülbin Kurtay, Gizem Yanalak, Ersan Harputlu, Emre Aslan, Kasım Ocakoğlu, Mustafa Güllü, Mine Ince, İmren Hatay Patır
Abstract
In comparison to traditional solar cells, the dye-sensitized photocatalytic system is one of the most appealing artificial photosynthesis mechanisms due to its low cost and straightforward fabrication. Herein, the photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reactions of Zn-based phthalocyanine (Pc) derivatives, abbreviated as ZnPc-1 and ZnPc-2, were primarily studied in the presence of TEOA sacrificial electron donor. To this aim, the PC activities of ZnPc-1/TiO2 and ZnPc-2/TiO2 photocatalysts were investigated in the absence and presence of a cocatalyst. For the first hour, the amount of hydrogen generated by ZnPc derivatives (ZnPc-1/TiO2 and ZnPc-2/TiO2) was determined to be 1.221 and 0.864 mmol g–1 h–1, respectively. Additionally, the solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiencies of ZnPc-1/TiO2 and ZnPc-2/TiO2 were ascertained to be 3.15% and 2.22%, respectively. Interestingly, STH efficiencies of photocatalysts were increased about 4-fold in the presence of a cocatalyst. Consequently, to elucidate the structural properties of ZnPc-1 and ZnPc-2, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT studies were also conducted, and it was discovered that noncovalent interactions and steric hindrance effects on ZnPc-2 are tightly related to the experimentally determined PC activity differences between ZnPc-1 and ZnPc-2.