Donor-acceptor polymers and complexes for photocells and photoinduced H2-evolution

这项题为“光电池供体-受体聚合物和络合物和光致氢气演化”的提案涉及与清洁能源有关的两个具体主题。1-用于聚合物光伏电池设计的低带隙聚合物。新型均相双功能染料-Pt2催化剂的光诱导析氢(Phe)反应。由于明显的经济和环境问题，将太阳光转换为电力现在引起了公众的高度关注，这一领域的资金越来越多地由不同的政府(联邦和省级)和行业专门提供。目前的趋势集中在塑料太阳能电池上，因为与使用半导体硅材料设计的刚性固态太阳能电池板相比，塑料太阳能电池的生产成本似乎更低。在这项提案中，新聚合物的设计将集中在两个关键参数上。首先，材料应该在给定的波长吸收更多的光子，这一特性被称为吸收率。其次，材料应该在太阳光谱的红色区域吸收更多的光子。后者是通过以共轭方式将聚合物构建在(给体-受体)n的重复序列上(即通过链进行电子通信)实现的。这产生了称为电荷转移的施主-受主相互作用，在红色区域出现了一个新的吸收带。将太阳光和水直接转化为氢气很有吸引力，因为它显然是清洁的，但如果考虑到目前塑料太阳能电池(约7-8%)和水的水解(H2O=H2+1/2 O2；约50%)的最佳效率，也可以认为在不那么遥远的未来经济上是可行的。所提出的新型催化剂的设计可溶于普通有机溶剂，由2至4个染料连接到一个双铂物种上。染料的作用是吸收光线，这将有助于触发电子转移到双铂物种，后者容易从添加的水或酸中吸收质子。所以，整个反应是H++1e-+light=1/2H2。

This proposal entitled "Donor-acceptor polymers and complexes for photocells and photoinduced H2-evolution" deals with two specific themes related to clean energy. 1- Low band gap polymers for applications in the design of polymer photovoltaic cells. 2- Photoinduced H2 evolution (PHE) using new homogeneous difunctional dye-Pt2 catalysts. The conversion of sun light into electricity is now a subject of high public interest for obvious economic and environmental issues and funding in this area is increasingly being dedicated by different governments (federal and provincial) and industry. The current tendency is focussed on plastic solar cells as they appear to be cheaper to produce in comparison with the rigid solid state solar panels designed with semi-conducting silicon materials. In this proposal, the design of new polymers will be made focussing onto two key parameters. First, the materials should absorb more photons at a given wavelength, a property called absorptivity. Second, the materials should absorb more photons in the red region of the solar spectrum. The latter is achieved by building the polymers upon a repetitive sequence of (donor-acceptor)n in a conjugated manner (i.e. electronically communicating across the chain). This creates donor-acceptor interactions called charge transfer and a new absorption band appears in the red region. The conversion of sun light and water directly into hydrogen is appealing because it is obviously clean but also can be considered economically viable in a non-so remote future if one considers the current best efficiencies for plastic solar cells (about 7-8 %) and hydrolysis of water (H2O = H2 + 1/2 O2; about 50%). The design of the proposed new catalysts which is soluble in common organic solvents consists of 2 to 4 dyes attached to a diplatinum species. The role of the dye is to absorb the light which will help trigger an electron transfer to the diplatinum species which is prone to absorb protons from added water or acids. So, the overall reaction is H+ + 1e- + light = 1/2 H2.