Black phosphorus photocatalysts for photocatalytic H2 generation: A review

[Display omitted] •Recent development of black phosphorus for solar H2 generation was summarized.•The preparation methods for black phosphorus nanosheets are reviewed.•Structure-performance relationship of black phosphorus was summarized.•The challenges of black phosphorus photocatalyst were proposed. As an emerging two-dimensional semiconductor, black phosphorus (BP) has attracted tremendous research interest owing to its unique properties of high charge carrier mobility, strong light harvesting ability and tunable bandgap. During the past few years, BP-based photocatalyst, including BP nanosheets and BP quantum dots, have attracted considerable attention for photocatalytic H2 evolution, and some significant achievement has been made. In this review, a brief overview of the general background of BP and its related photocatalytic materials was introduced in the introduction section, followed by the basic properties and main synthesis approach of BP materials. And then, the recent development of BP-based photocatalysts for photocatalytic H2 production was summarized, and the influence factors on the photocatalytic performance and methods to enhance the activities of BP-based photocatalysts are discussed in detail. Finally, this review ends with some challenges and perspectives in this emerging area of research. The aim of this Review on BP photocatalysts and their application in solar H2 generation was to evaluate the current status of this research and provide promising design principles for the future development of BP-based photocatalysts.