Hydrogen Generation from the Photolytic Decomposition of Water

This paper outlines several important discoveries in the authors' laboratories relating to the solar production of H//2 from the photolytic decomposition of water. Significant advances have been made in research on particulate and thin-film semiconductor systems for the photochemical conversion of sunlight. Better understanding and control of charge-transfer and catalytic processes have been obtained. New, stable, molecular semiconductors with good solar spectral response have been developed. Also, wide-band-gap TiO//2 has been derivatized with transition metal complexes to improve its solar spectral response. Very active Pt clusters for catalyzing the production of hydrogen from water have been synthesized and characterized. A method for minimizing the recombination of H//2 and O//2 in dispersed systems has been extensively investigated and exploited to improve the quantum yields of the water-cleavage reaction.