Amines functionalities on chitosan boasting photocatalytic activity of cobalt(II)-phthalocyanine in water-splitting

Water as an abundant and safe source has been employed for the hydrogen generation to cutback use of toxic fossil fuels. Promotion of this reaction by photocatalytic approaches is worthy solution to stay away from expenditure of complicated electrochemical pathways. Amongst photocatalysts, noble metal-based catalysts are widely utilized in this reaction suffering from high-cost. Herein, cobalt(II)-phthalocyanine tetra-carboxylic acid was bonded to chitosan by amidation reaction to afford a new composite with enhanced both semiconductor behavior and catalyst activity. This photocatalyst efficently harvest light in a broad region of UV-Vis to generate electron/hole pairs to promote water-splitting with the TOF of 510 h−1 at ambient conditions without any additive. Chitosan as a support of the catalyst facilitated the catalyst separation, improved optical action, and assisted to the hydrogen evolution by forming ammonioum intermediates. This novel composite could be considered as an efficent photocatalyst with low-cost and easy handling.