High throughput (combinatorial) materials science methodology is a relatively new research paradigm that offers the promise of rapid and efficient materials screening, optimization, and discovery. The paradigm started in the pharmaceutical industry but was rapidly adopted to accelerate materials research in a wide variety of areas. High throughput experiments are characterized by synthesis of a “library” sample that contains the materials variation of interest (typically composition), and rapid and localized measurement schemes that result in massive data sets. Because the data are collected at the same time on the same “library” sample, they can be highly uniform with respect to fixed processing parameters. This article critically reviews the literature pertaining to applications of combinatorial materials science for electronic, magnetic, optical, and energy-related materials. It is expected that high throughput methodologies will facilitate commercialization of novel materials for these critically important applications. Despite the overwhelming evidence presented in this paper that high throughput studies can effectively inform commercial practice, in our perception, it remains an underutilized research and development tool. Part of this perception may be due to the inaccessibility of proprietary industrial research and development practices, but clearly the initial cost and availability of high throughput laboratory equipment plays a role. Combinatorial materials science has traditionally been focused on materials discovery, screening, and optimization to combat the extremely high cost and long development times for new materials and their introduction into commerce. Going forward, combinatorial materials science will also be driven by other needs such as materials substitution and experimental verification of materials properties predicted by modeling and simulation, which have recently received much attention with the advent of the Materials Genome Initiative. Thus, the challenge for combinatorial methodology will be the effective coupling of synthesis, characterization and theory, and the ability to rapidly manage large amounts of data in a variety of formats.

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Applications of high throughput (combinatorial) methodologies to electronic, magnetic, optical, and energy-related materials

A Review of MOFs and Their Composites-Based Photocatalysts: Synthesis and Applications

Solar-driven hydrogen production from water using particulate photocatalysts is considered the most economical and effective approach to produce hydrogen fuel with little environmental concern. However, the efficiency of hydrogen production from water in particulate photocatalysis systems is still low. Here, we propose an efficient biphase photocatalytic system composed of integrated photothermal–photocatalytic materials that use charred wood substrates to convert liquid water to water steam, simultaneously splitting hydrogen under light illumination without additional energy. The photothermal–photocatalytic system exhibits biphase interfaces of photothermally-generated steam/photocatalyst/hydrogen, which significantly reduce the interface barrier and drastically lower the transport resistance of the hydrogen gas by nearly two orders of magnitude. In this work, an impressive hydrogen production rate up to 220.74 μmol h−1 cm−2 in the particulate photocatalytic systems has been achieved based on the wood/CoO system, demonstrating that the photothermal–photocatalytic biphase system is cost-effective and greatly advantageous for practical applications. The solar-driven H2 production from water by particulate photocatalysts is an effective approach to produce H2 fuel. Here, the authors propose an integrated photothermal–photocatalytic biphase system, which lowers the reaction barrier and the delivery resistance of the H2, boosting the catalytic H2 evolution rate.

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Boosting photocatalytic hydrogen production from water by photothermally induced biphase systems

Building P-doped MoS2/g-C3N4 layered heterojunction with a dual-internal electric field for efficient photocatalytic sterilization

Recent advances in application of transition metal phosphides for photocatalytic hydrogen production

The large-scale synthesis of the metallic phase MoS2 (1 T MoS2) is important for enhancing the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, it’s difficult to obtain a high-quality of 1 T MoS2, especially when integrated with other semiconductors for hetero nanomaterials. Herein, a one-step confined template method is proposed to obtain high-quality 1 T MoS2 in the CuS nanoframe (CuS–MoS2–1 T). During the synthesis, a unique porous Cu–Mo-based metal–organic framework (MOF), i.e., NENU-5 template has been adopted and in situ sulfurized, where 1 T MoS2 and CuS have been simultaneously obtained. Interestingly, we find that the confined pores of the CuS nanoframe inhibits the bulk growth of MoS2 to produce high-stability and large-scale 1 T MoS2 (a high concentration of ∼70 %). The obtained nanomaterial exhibits remarkable photocatalytic activity with the hydrogen production rate of approximately 9648.7 μmol g−1 h−1, which is much higher than other various newly developed photocatalysts reported early. This study develops a new strategy via MOF confined template for high-quality 1 T MoS2 production and achieves outstanding performance in the photocatalytic water splitting. This approach may also shed light on other similar confined templates for the praparation of high-quality metastable nanomaterials.

In-situ growth of high-content 1T phase MoS2 confined in the CuS nanoframe for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

One-step synthesis of P-doped MoS2 for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

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Heat Diffusion-Induced Gradient Energy Level in Multishell Bisulfides for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Sulfur-Deficient ZnIn2S4/Oxygen-Deficient WO3 Hybrids with Carbon Layer Bridges as a Novel Photothermal/Photocatalytic Integrated System for Z-Scheme Overall Water Splitting

Youzi Zhang

Papers

In-situ growth of high-content 1T phase MoS2 confined in the CuS nanoframe for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

One-step synthesis of P-doped MoS2 for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

Heat Diffusion-Induced Gradient Energy Level in Multishell Bisulfides for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Sulfur-Deficient ZnIn2S4/Oxygen-Deficient WO3 Hybrids with Carbon Layer Bridges as a Novel Photothermal/Photocatalytic Integrated System for Z-Scheme Overall Water Splitting

One-step MOFs-assisted synthesis of intimate contact MoP-Cu3P hybrids for photocatalytic water splitting