Self-assembling hydrogel scaffolds for photocatalytic hydrogen production

Abstract

Integration in a soft material of all molecular components necessary to generate storable fuels is an interesting target in supramolecular chemistry. The concept is inspired by the internal structure of photosynthetic organelles such as plant chloroplasts which co-localize molecules involved in light absorption, charge transport, and catalysis to create chemical bonds with light energy. We report here on the light-driven production of hydrogen inside a hydrogel scaffold built by the supramolecular self-assembly of a perylene monoimide amphiphile. The charged ribbons formed can electrostatically attract a nickel-based catalyst, and electrolyte screening promotes gelation. We found the emergent phenomenon that screening by the catalyst or the electrolytes led to two-dimensional crystallization of the chromophore assemblies and enhanced the electronic coupling among the molecules. Photocatalytic production of hydrogen is observed in the three-dimensional environment of the hydrogel scaffold and the material is easily placed on surfaces or in the pores of solid supports. The development of soft materials that integrate all necessary molecular components to generate storable fuels in the presence of sunlight is an unexplored area of chemistry with potential impact in renewable energy. Such systems could have advantages over the use of large volumes of liquids, dispersions of expensive or toxic inorganic particles, or complex devices. The use of such soft materials with integrated functions and high water content is bioinspired by the internal structure of chloroplasts in plants. These photosynthetic organelles have evolved to co-localize within stacked lipid bilayers in their stroma the protein machinery which integrates light-absorption, charge transport, and the catalytic functions necessary to convert light energy into chemical bonds1,2. Efforts to emulate natural photosynthetic systems over the past several decades have concentrated on the development of efficient catalysts for water oxidation and proton reduction3-7. In other recent work, catalysts have been coupled to light absorbing CdSe quantum dots8, Si microrods9, and organic dyes10,11 to create artificial photosynthetic systems. Also functional devices capable of performing water-splitting and fuel-generating reactions using earth-abundant resources have been demonstrated12. The development of bionspired soft materials that can be shaped into forms and integrate light-harvesting, charge transport, and catalytic functions to produce solar fuels is an obvious gap. This gap can be addressed through self-assembly strategies for materials in which a bottom-up approach fine tunes all functional aspects of a catalytic system13. Organic systems may have shorter lifetimes than their inorganic counterparts, but could have their own niche in sustainable energy given their soft matter nature and low energy requirements for production. We report here on a strategy to create supramolecular hydrogels that integrate both light-absorbing chromophores and catalysts into a material for light-driven hydrogen (H2) production. Our work here is focused only on the supramolecular chemistry necessary to create a formable catalytic material and therefore does not explore its possible integration into a photocathode that would not require a sacrificial electron donor. We designed a charged amphiphilic chromophore with the capacity to self-assemble into supramolecular polymers via hydrophobic collapse. At sufficiently high concentrations and under electrostatic screening conditions, charged supramolecular polymers can easily produce a three-dimensional network that takes the form of a gel. These networks could be highly hydrated and host the soluble components necessary to produce the solar fuel. At the same time, much like natural photosynthetic antennae, supramolecular structures of conjugated molecules formed through π orbital overlap should have the capacity to absorb light, split excitons, and transport the charges to catalytic reaction centers. Despite the large body of work on the gelation and light harvesting abilities of conjugated molecules14, the use of π-conjugated gels for artificial photosynthetic applications has not been reported. Through molecular design, we demonstrate here a supramolecular catalytic system that localizes catalysts within chromophore gels using electrostatic attraction.