Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production: A Rift into the Future Energy Supply

Abstract Photocatalytic hydrogen (H 2 ) production is a process that converts solar energy into chemical energy by means of a suitable photocatalyst. After the huge amount of systems that have been tested in the last forty years, the advent of nanotechnology and a careful design at molecular level, allow to obtain attractive activity, even using pure visible light. At the same time we are approaching reasonable photocatalyst stability in laboratory test, and the attention is paid to identify cost‐effective photocatalysts that might find real applications. This Review provides a broad overview of the elementary steps of the heterogeneous photocatalytic H 2 production, including an outline of the…