Photochemical response of nanoporous carbons. Role as catalysts, photoelectrodes and additives to semiconductors

Abstract

The main objective of this doctoral thesis is explore the origin of the nanoporous carbons photoactivity for studying their applications in different fields of research covering their use as photocatalysts for pollutants degradation as well as photoelectrodes for water photooxidation reaction, either by themselves or as additives coupled to a semiconductor in hybrid electrodes. The first stage of this study mainly consisted in investigating the photoactivity of carbon materials by themselves (in the absence of semiconductors) towards different reactions, aiming at linking their photochemical response with the carbon material nature in terms of porosity, surface chemistry, composition and structure. The exploration of the photoassisted degradation of phenol nanoconfined in the pore voids of several nanoporous carbons showed a positive effect of the tight packing of the molecule in the carbon material porosity. This indicated the role of confinement to boost fast interactions between the photogenerated charge carriers at carbon material surface and the molecule adsorbed inside pores. The irradiation wavelength was found as a key variable upon phenol photooxidation reaction, with the best optimum performance at low and high wavelengths, and a minimum photodegradation yield at ca. 400 nm for all tested carbon materials. Another parameter strongly influencing the photoactivity of the nanoporous carbons was the surface functionalisation. When sulphur was incorporated to a carbon matrix, the light conversion towards the phenol photooxidation became more efficient and it was dependent on the nature of the S-containing groups. Further on, the analysis of photocurrent transients obtained by irradiating several nanoporous carbon electrodes exhibited different responses, with either anodic or cathodic photocurrent, and transient shapes, thus demonstrating the distinct nature of the catalysed reaction occurring onto electrode/electrolyte interface. The second stage deals with hybrid nanoporous carbon/semiconductor (i.e. WO3) electrodes which allowed to explore the role of nanoporous carbon as additive towards water oxidation reaction. The presence of carbon material had a notable effect on the hybrid electrode performance, in terms of conversion efficiency (IPCE), likely due to the improved collection of the photogenerated electrons by carbon matrix. An optimal amount of carbon additive of ca. 20 wt.% was obtained for the best performing hybrid electrode, with a twofold IPCE compared to that obtained for bare WO3 electrode. The effect of carbon matrix on WO3 performance was found dependent on semiconductor crystalline structure.