Photocatalytic and Photoreforming-Driven Hydrogen Production
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A5: Hydrogen Energy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: organic semiconducting materials; soft functional materials and electronics; stretchable electronics; electronic skin; photocatalysis; energy coversion technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The global demand for clean and sustainable energy has intensified research into photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, a promising strategy for converting solar energy into hydrogen fuel. Over the past decade, advances in materials design, charge-transfer understanding, and system integration have significantly enhanced the performance of photocatalytic water-splitting systems under visible-light irradiation.
Innovations span a broad range of materials, including inorganic semiconductors, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and donor–acceptor conjugated polymers. At the same time, photoreforming technologies that convert biomass, plastic waste, and organic pollutants into hydrogen and value-added chemicals are gaining attention for their dual benefits in clean-energy production and environmental remediation.
The substantial progress that has been made in cocatalyst engineering, bandgap modulation, morphological control, and heterojunction construction has contributed to notable improvements in activity, selectivity, and durability. Additionally, cutting-edge characterization techniques and theoretical modeling have deepened our understanding of exciton behavior, catalytic pathways, and structure–property relationships.
This Special Issue aims to highlight and disseminate the latest developments in photoreforming and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, with emphasis on emerging materials, mechanistic insights, performance-optimization strategies, and future perspectives for practical solar-driven hydrogen production.
Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible and solar light;
- Photoreforming of biomass, plastic waste, and organic substrates;
- Donor–acceptor frameworks, COFs, MOFs, and polymer photocatalysts;
- Bandgap tuning and heterojunction construction;
- Cocatalyst and surface modification strategies;
- Charge-transfer dynamics and exciton behavior;
- In situ/operando spectroscopy and mechanistic studies;
- Computational modeling and DFT insights;
- Integrated photoreactors and scalable hydrogen generation;
- Coupled reactions for hydrogen and fine chemical co-production.
We warmly welcome the submission of original research articles, reviews, and perspectives that contribute to the scientific progress and practical development of photoreforming and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.
Prof. Dr. Ho-Hsiu Chou
Dr. Jayachandran Jayakumar
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
- solar-to-hydrogen conversion
- photoreforming
- water splitting
- semiconductor photocatalysts
- donor–acceptor polymers
- covalent–organic frameworks
- cocatalyst engineering
- charge separation and transfer
- bandgap tuning
- renewable energy conversion
- pollutant degradation
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