Porous Polyselenoviologen with Long-lived Charge Separated States and Highly Cyclic Stability for Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Reaction and Hydrogen Production

A highly stable heterogeneous photocatalyst, porous polyselenoviologen (POP-SeV2+), was successfully synthesized via SN2 reaction. Compared to the monomer, POP-SeV2+ exhibited strong visible-light absorption, enhanced electron acceptor property, and prolonged lifetime of radical cations. Simultaneously, the femtosecond transient absorption (fs-TA) illustrated that the formation of tetrahedral multi-cationic structure is conducive to the rapid generation of molecular excited states and extending the duration of charge-separated states. Due to its remarkable characteristics, the POP-SeV2+ was employed as a photocatalyst for visible-light-induced cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reactions with a highly efficient yield (82 %). Additionally, its utilization was further extended to the hydrogen generation, demonstrating remarkable outcomes such as a high rate of H2 generation (300 μmol·h−1·g−1), and an apparent quantum yield (0.13 %). Notably, POP-SeV2+ displayed great stability and reusability in the photocatalytic process, which can distinguish it from those soluble SeV2+-based photocatalysts. The catalytic efficiency of POP-SeV2+ remained virtually unaffected even after undergoing several recycling cycles, which not only achieved the complete heterogeneous photocatalysis of SeV2+-based systems for the first time but also provided a new strategy to improve the application effect of viologen derivatives in solar energy conversion and utilization.