Recently, Professor Feng Bai published a research titled by “Microemulsion-Assisted Self-Assembly and Synthesis of Size-Controlled Porphyrin Nanocrystals with Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution” in top journal of Nano Letters, 2019, 19, 2614-2619.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b00423

Design and engineering of highly efficient light-harvesting nanomaterial systems to emulate natural photosynthesis for maximizing energy conversion have stimulated extensive efforts. Here we present a new class of photoactive semiconductor nanocrystals that exhibit highefficiency energy transfer for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production under visible light. These nanocrystals are formed through noncovalent self-assembly of In(III) mesotetraphenylporphine chloride (InTPP) during microemulsion assisted nucleation and growth process. Through kinetic control, a series of uniform nanorods with controlled aspect ratio and high crystallinity have been fabricated. Self-assembly of InTPP porphyrins results in extensive optical coupling and broader coverage of the visible spectrum for efficient light harvesting. As a result, these nanocrystals display excellent photocatalytic hydrogen production and photostability under the visible light in comparison with the commercial InTPP porphyrin powders.

Figure, Assembly and Synthesis of Size-Controlled InTPP Nanocrystals