Recent advances in polydopamine and its derivatives assisted electrocatalysis and photocatalysis

Abstract

In recent years, polydopamine (PDA) has attracted extensive attention of researchers due to its unique chemical structure and functional groups. However, a comprehensive review of PDA-based materials in electrocatalysis and photocatalysis is still lacking. The aim of this review is to summarize recent progress and development of PDA-assisted electrocatalytic and photocatalytic reactions. Owing to its unique advantages in surface modification, it has been a good platform for the construction of electrocatalytic and photocatalytic materials. With the development of biological sources, PDA has been increasingly applied in the field of materials science. However, it is still lacking of a comprehensive review which focuses on PDA surface modification strategies and its derivative function for electrocatalysis and photocatalysis applications. Here in this article the preparation and polymerization mechanism of PDA and its derivatives has been firstly reviewed. Then their physical and chemical properties have been introduced, including chemical reactivity, optical property, conductivity, and cohesiveness. Thirdly, the electrocatalytic and photocatalytic activities of PDA and its derivatives have been demonstrated. Finally, the advances of their electrocatalytic and photocatalytic applications have been summarized including hydrogen production, pollutant degradation, and CO2 reduction. We believe this synthetic study can provide critical information for mussel-inspired chemistry, which will be of great interest for researchers from chemistry, materials, biology, medicine, and interdisciplinary. This paper can provide readers with a general framework of PDA and its derivatives in the field of photocatalysis and electrocatalysis including hydrogen production, pollutant degradation, and CO2 reduction.