Talk:Photocatalytic water splitting

Untitled
This page seems to suffer from some cut and paste errors. For example "Theoretically, infrared light has enough energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen; however, this reaction is kinetically very slow because the wavelength is greater 380nm. The potential is less than 3.0eV to make the efficient use of solar. " Conorology (talk) 19:28, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

I agree with Conrology. Who wrote this page in the first place? I think what the author was trying to say is that 3eV of energy is the maximum energy you get from photon in the visible spectrum. The visible spectrum running from about 400nm (~3eV) to about 700nm (~1.8eV). The authors other statement, that the "reaction is kinetically very slow because the wavelength is greater than 380 nm" might be correct but there is not reference to back this up and I'd like to know why the author believes this is true. Eliasds (talk) 21:59, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

The section Photocatalyst systems->Cd(1-x)Zn(x)S seems to *be*, copied and pasted, the full abstract of Reference 6 (a primary source). Might that be a copyright violation as well? I ronh (talk) 23:25, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

What is zero pH??????
As quoted here.

One of the several requirements for an effective photocatalyst for water splitting is that the potential difference (voltage) must be 1.23 V at 0 pH.[2]

I always thought 7 was neutral — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arydberg (talk • contribs) 17:14, 24 March 2021 (UTC)


 * pH 7 is in the middle of the pH scale, acids < 7, bases > 7. pH 0 is possible for a very acidic solution. I'm not sure what your point is here. Trickily (talk) 10:28, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

Infrared Light
This section is a bit challenging. The first sentence mentions IR but is unclear: "Theoretically, infrared light has enough energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen; however, this reaction is very slow when the wavelength is greater than 750 nm. The potential must be less than 3.0 V to make efficient use of the energy present across the full spectrum of sunlight. Water splitting can transfer charges, but not be able to avoid corrosion for long term stability. Defects within crystalline photocatalysts can act as recombination sites, ultimately lowering efficiency. " What is ment by a potential of 3.0 V? A potential energy of 3 eV? 3 V on a galvanic cell? This could be made much more clear. EEguy100 (talk) 22:26, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

article tone and citations
The topic of photocatalytic water splitting is niche, relegated to a small corner of academic chemical science. It has no important implications in society or industry. Therefore, I have changed the tone of the article to be as objective as possible. It is expected that this article will contain mostly references to primary sources. I have added a few "review" sources. The spirit of the article is sufficient to get a new student on the subject started on key literature and I believe keeping the "Photocatalyst compounds" section is a good resource.

I believe the article's subjective tone has been corrected now and is ready to have the maintenance template removed. RoBunsen (talk) 13:36, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

We need to distinguish between photocatalysis and photoelectrochemical water splitting.
I think that we need to distinguish between a photocatalytic (PC) material and a photoelectrochemical (PEC) material, or just move PEC material to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoelectrochemical_cell. In the Photocatalysts section, various materials are discussed that belong to PEC devices. PEC work in different environments and setups with different electrical wires, bias, and electrolytes. While PC does not need them. I suggest we move them. Gary thelake (talk) 16:42, 16 August 2023 (UTC)