Enabling artificial photosynthesis systems with molecular recycling: A review of photo- and electrochemical methods for regenerating organic sacrificial electron donors

• Grace A. Lowe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1198–1215, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.88

• sacrificial electron donors, and for researchers interested in designing new redox mediator and recyclable electron donor species. Keywords: artificial photosynthesis; photocatalysis; redox couple; sacrificial electron donor; solar fuels; Introduction Artificial photosynthesis research has resulted in the

• dioxide reduction system was limited by the rate of the photooxidized sensitizer re-reduction. In their review of sacrificial electron donors for solar fuels, Pellegrin and Odobel noted that an effective sacrificial donor must be irreversibly oxidized into inert molecules [3]. This prevents side reactions

• sacrificial donors than cyclohexane. Although these papers were not demonstrating the recycling of sacrificial donors, they both demonstrate that electrochemical hydrogenation could be an extension of artificial photosynthesis for the production of solar fuels and feedstocks [41][42]. There is also a large

Heterogeneous photocatalysis in flow chemical reactors

• Christopher G. Thomson,
• Ai-Lan Lee and
• Filipe Vilela

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1495–1549, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.125

• found to split water to oxygen and hydrogen gas under strong UV irradiation. This gained significant attention in the wider scientific community for the potential generation of solar fuels [27][75] and formed the foundation of modern heterogeneous photocatalysis. With this brief historical perspective

Graphitic carbon nitride prepared from urea as a photocatalyst for visible-light carbon dioxide reduction with the aid of a mononuclear ruthenium(II) complex

• Kazuhiko Maeda,
• Daehyeon An,
• Ryo Kuriki,
• Daling Lu and
• Osamu Ishitani

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1806–1812, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.153

• phase. Keywords: artificial photosynthesis; heterogeneous photocatalysis; hybrid material; metal complexes; solar fuels; Introduction Carbon nitride is one of the oldest synthetic polymers [1], and has several allotropes. Among them, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is the most stable form and is an