Electrochemical water splitting has attracted significant attention as a key pathway for the development of renewable energy systems. Fabricating efficient electrocatalysts these processes is intensely desired to reduce their overpotentials and facilitate practical applications. Recently, metal–organic framework (MOF) nanoarchitectures featuring ultrahigh surface areas, tunable nanostructures, ...

Solar water splitting offers a potential avenue for the production of clean and storable energy in form hydrogen. Conjugated polymer photocatalysts offer new opportunities which are discussed this highlight.

One of the undesirable features in pistachio nuts (Pistacia vera L.) is the incidence of non-split nuts, which affects the price of the final product. In order to attain the kernel inside, the non-split nuts are mostly cracked mechanically. However, this practice may damage the kernel. Akbari variety of pistachio nut was selected to evaluate the influence of different non-mechanical treatments ...

Water-splitting dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells (WS-DSPECs) use visible light to split water using molecular sensitizers and water oxidation catalysts codeposited onto mesoporous TiO2 electrodes. Despite a high quantum yield of charge injection and low requirement for the catalytic turnover rate, the quantum yield of water splitting in WS-DSPECs is typically low (<1%). Here we examine...

A novel ruthenium(ii) water oxidation catalyst equipped with axial perylene bisimide ligands that self-assembled into nanofibers was synthesized. This fiber-embedded catalyst exhibited improved performance compared with a monomeric reference for the oxidative water splitting reaction.

We report an unassisted solar water splitting system powered by a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-containing semitransparent organic solar cell. Two major merits of this fullerene-free solar cell enable its integration with a BiVO4 photoanode. First is the high open circuit voltage and high fill factor displayed by this single junction solar cell, which yields sufficient power to effect water splitt...

It has been reported that phase structure and surface polarity largely affect the photocatalytic efficiency of semiconductor nanostructures. To understand the chemical activity of ZnS at the electronic level, we investigate electron structures and carrier transportation ability for bulk intrinsic zinc blende (ZB) and wurtzite (WZ) ZnS, as well as the reaction pathway of hydrogen generation from...

High-resolution soft X-ray photoelectron spectra of liquid water (H(2)O and D(2)O) were measured using a liquid beam photoelectron spectrometer. The 1a(1) (O1s) band and the lowest valence 1b(1) band had single peaks, which is not consistent with the split 1b(1)→ 1a(1) of the X-ray emission band of liquid water if the splitting is assumed to originate from level shifts in two different hydrogen...