Recent Advances in Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution with Heterogeneous Catalysis

Scientific and technological advances have intensified global energy challenges and environmental pollution associated with the combustion of fossil fuels. Hydrogen as a clean energy source is crucial for addressing these problems. In this regard, photocatalytic hydrogen evolution technologies, which can convert solar energy directly into chemical energy through water splitting and the dehydrogenation of liquid organic hydrogen carriers, have recently gained importance and have a viable route toward sustainable, carbon-neutral fuel production. Nevertheless, optimizing the performance of these processes depends on fine-tuning the physicochemical properties of the employed photocatalysts, most notably their light-harvesting ability, photoinduced charge separation efficiency, and surface reactivity of the employed photocatalysts. In recent years, titanium dioxide, graphitic carbon nitride, metal–organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks and metal sulfides have gained widespread recognition as photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution due to their excellent properties. This review summarizes recent advances in these material groups, focusing on modification strategies, heterojunction engineering and band structure optimization to enhance their charge transfer and hydrogen evolution performance.