Photocatalytic and Photoelectrochemical Overall Water Splitting

Sustainable and renewable hydrogen production via solar-driven water splitting is a promising solution to address critical environmental concerns and dwindling oil supplies. Despite extensive efforts to viably compete with the hydrogen production from the conventional steam reforming process, economical and stable integrated devices have yet to be realized. The last four chapters discuss the individual evolution of either hydrogen or oxygen by photocatalytic or photoelectrochemical water splitting. In this chapter, fundamental scientific requisites, mechanism aspects, and development horizons for overall water splitting are comprehensively covered in the development of photocatalytic technologies and hybrid systems integrating photovoltaic devices and photoelectrodes in photoelectrochemical platforms. Benchmark photocatalysts and emerging strategies are reflected in an overview of an extensive library of light-responsive semiconductor-based materials, attractive cocatalysts, and plasmonic nanostructures and assessed synthesis approaches, e.g. the construction of heterojunctions between state-of-the-art semiconductors. In this line, the reader is expected to benefit from a comprehensive guideline and methodical review in the development of practical and adequate materials for solar-driven overall water splitting systems.