Water soluble photocatalysts based on porphyrin-carbon dots conjugates produce H2 under visible light irradiation

Herein we report the visible-light-induced hydrogen generation from aqueous protons utilizing a novel hybrid photocatalytic nanomaterial comprising of porphyrin-carbon dot conjugates. Amide coupling between metallated tetra-carboxyphenyl porphyrins (MTCPP) and nitrogen doped carbon dots (NCDots) was perfomed to afford M-TCPP-NCDots hybrids which were applied in hydrogen evolution photocatalysis under visible irradiation. H2 was obtained in the presence of approriate sacrificial electron donors and with no additional metalic co-catalysts. Noteworthy, the covallent attachement as well as the zinc-metallation of the porphyrin moiety were proved vital for the efficiency of the present system. The present study consist an innovative approach for artificial photosynthesis avoiding the use of costly materials such as noble metals.