Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Hydrogen production

Catalysing artificial photosynthesis

Efficient photocatalytic splitting of water to realize carbon-free production of hydrogen from sunlight remains a challenge. New precious-metal-free molecular catalysts in semiconductor-based, visible-light-driven water-splitting systems are promising for realizing practical artificial photosynthesis.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Benchmarks in the development of artificial photosynthesis for photocatalytic hydrogen production.

References

  1. Tachibana, Y., Vayssieres, L. & Durrant, J. R. Nature Photon. 6, 511–518 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Barber, J. Chem. Soc. Rev. 38, 185–196 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Chen, X., Shen, S., Guo, L. & Mao, S. S. Chem. Rev. 110, 6503–6570 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Shen, S. & Mao, S. S. Nanophotonics 1, 31–50 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Das, A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 16716–16723 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Fujishima, A. & Honda, K. Nature 238, 37–38 (1972).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bard, A. J. Science 207, 139–144 (1980).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lehn, J. M. & Sauvage, J. P. Nouv. J. Chim. 1, 449–451 (1977).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Maeda, K. et al. Nature 440, 295 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Chen, X., Liu, L., Yu, P. Y. & Mao, S. S. Science 331, 746–750 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Du, P. & Eisenberg, R. Energy Environ. Sci. 5, 6012–6021 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Han, Z., Qiu, F., Eisenberg, R., Holland, P. L. & Krauss, T. D. Science 338, 1321–1324 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samuel S. Mao.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mao, S., Shen, S. Catalysing artificial photosynthesis. Nature Photon 7, 944–946 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.326

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.326

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing