Abstract
The possibility of performing photochemical water splitting in a two-stage system, separately releasing the H and O components, has been probed with two separate catalysts and in combination with a formaldehyde/formate shuttling redox couple. In the first stage, formaldehyde releases hydrogen vigorously in the presence of an Na[Fe(CN)]·10HO catalyst, selectively affording the formate anion. In the second stage, the formate anion is hydro-genated back to formaldehyde by water and in the presence of a BiWO photocatalyst whilst releasing oxygen. Both stages operate at room temperature and under visible light irradiation. The two separate photocatalysts are compatible since water splitting can also be obtained in one-pot experiments with simultaneous H/O evolution.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 49-54 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Dalton Trans. |
Volume | 46 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: Saudi Basic Industry Corporation (SABIC) is gratefully acknowledged for financial support through a research grant. The authors wish to thank Dr Sharon Curtis and Dr Alexander Mommers from the John L. Homes Mass Spectrometry Facility for their help with the isotopic experiments. Parts of this study have been filed as patent applications US 15/150,680, US 62/300,175 and PCT/IB2016052676.