Dibenzothiophene‐S,S‐dioxide‐based conjugated polymers : highly efficient photocatalyts for hydrogen production from water under visible light

• Main Authors: Dai, Chunhui, Xu, Shidang, Liu, Wei, Gong, Xuezhong, Panahandeh-Fard, Majid, Liu, Zitong, Zhang, Deqing, Xue, Can, Loh, Kian Ping, Liu, Bin
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials; Conjugated Polymers; Dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/139222
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Three dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide-based alternating copolymers were synthesized by facile Suzuki polymerization for visible light-responsive hydrogen production from water (> 420 nm). Without addition of any cocatalyst, FluPh2-SO showed a photocatalytic efficiency of 3.48 mmol h-1 g-1 , while a larger hydrogen evolution rate (HER) of 4.74 mmol h-1 g-1 was achieved for Py-SO, which was ascribed to the improved coplanarity of the polymer that facilitated both intermolecular packing and charge transport. To minimize the possible steric hindrance of FluPh2-SO by replacing 9,9'-diphenylfluorene with fluorene, Flu-SO exhibited a more red-shifted absorption than FluPh2-SO and yielded the highest HER of 5.04 mmol h-1 g-1 . This work highlights the potential of dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide as a versatile building block and the rational design strategy for achieving high photocatalytic efficiency.