Non-covalently linked donor-acceptor interaction enhancing photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from porphyrin assembly

The separation of photogenerated excitons plays a crucial role in initiating high-efficiency photocatalysis of organic semiconductors. Herein, a non-covalent donor-acceptor (D-A) structure composed of tetrakis (4-carboxyphenyl) zinc porphyrin (ZnTCPP) linked to ethylenediamine functionalized fullerene (C60-EDA) by electrostatic interaction was successfully developed. Due to D-A interaction, an efficient electron transfer channel from ZnTCPP to C60-EDA was established, resulting in a charge-separated state with appreciable lifetime. Accordingly, the photogenerated excitons separation got considerably improved and charge-carrier exhibited faster migration to the surface of D-A assembly. ZnTCPP/C60-EDA presented efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution of 113.5 μmol h−1 under full spectrum, 3.9 times higher that of pure ZnTCPP. This work offers valuable insight into the non-covalent D-A construction for enhanced photocatalytic performance. [Display omitted] •A non-covalently linked donor-acceptor (D-A) structure was constructed based on porphyrin assembly.•The long-lived charge-separated state was achieved due to efficient electron transfer from porphyrin to modified fullerene.•D-A assembly enabled enhanced photogenerated exciton dissociation and fast charge-carrier migration.•D-A assembly presented a highly improved photocatalytic H2 evolution of 113.5 μmol h−1.