Artificial photosynthesis over graphene–semiconductor composites. Are we getting better?

Tremendous interest is devoted to fabricating numerous graphene (GR)-semiconductor composites toward improved conversion of solar energy, resulting from the observation that the photogenerated electrons from semiconductors (e.g., TiO2, CdS) can be readily accepted or shuttled in the two-dimensional (2D) GR sheet. Yet although the hunt is on for GR-semiconductor composite based photoredox applications that aim to exploit the remarkable electronic conductivity of GR, the work necessary to find out how it could best be harnessed to improve the photocatalytic performance of semiconductors remains scanty. In this review, we highlight a few problems associated with improving the photocatalytic performance of…

• AO
  Academy of Finland