Hydrogen evolution with nanoengineered ZnO interfaces decorated using a beetroot extract and a hydrogenase mimic

Mariia V. Pavliuk,^a Anna Maria Cieślak,^b Mohamed Abdellah,^ae Alena Budinská,^a Sonja Pullen,^a Kamil Sokołowski,^b Daniel L. A. Fernandes,^a J. Szlachetko,^b Erick L. Bastos,^c Sascha Ott,^a Leif Hammarström,^a Tomas Edvinsson,^a Jacinto Sa,^ab Janusz Lewiński,^ad

^a Department of Chemistry, Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, 75120, Sweden
^b Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland
^c Department of Fundamental Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo, 05508-000 São Paulo, Brazil
^d Faculty of Chemistry, Warsaw University of Technology, Noakowskiego 3, 00-664 Warsaw, Poland
^e Department of Chemistry, Qena Faculty of Science, South Valley University, 83523 Qena, Egypt

DOI: 10.1039/C6SE00066E.
First published online 8th January 2017.
Paper on the publisher’s website.

We report a nano-hybrid photo-system based on abundant elements for H2 production with visible light. The photo-system's proficiency relates to the novel ZnO nanocrystals employed. The ZnO carboxylate oligoethylene glycol shell enhances charge separation and accumulates reactive electrons for the photocatalytic process.