Furan-based conjugated polymer photocatalysts for highly active photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light

Building donor–acceptor (D-A) structure in conjugated polymer photocatalysts has attracted intense attention for hydrogen evolution. Yet, it is still challenging for organic photocatalysts to realize high photocatalytic performance under visible light that contains almost half of the total solar energy. Herein, we employ furan (F) and dibenzofuran (BF) as electron donors to respectively couple with dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide (BTDO) acceptor to construct two furan-based D-A polymer photocatalysts (F-BTDO and BF-BTDO) for photocatalytic hydrogen production. Compared to BF-BTDO comprising BTDO and BF units, the polymer F-BTDO with furan donor shows a broader light adsorption range and more efficient charge separation, enabling F-BTDO to show a prominent photocatalytic activity with a hydrogen evolution rate of 120.68 mmol h−1 g−1 under visible light (λ > 420 nm) without adding Pt co-catalyst, which is much higher than that of BF-BTDO (4.83 mmol h−1 g−1) under the duplicate photocatalytic conditions. This work demonstrates that furan unit could be a promising donor for developing high-performance organic photocatalysts under visible light.