Deuteration Induced Electron‐Phonon Coupling Modulation: Suppressing Energy Dissipation and Enhancing Carrier Separation in Organic Photocatalysis
The electron-phonon coupling in organic photocatalysts offers a great opportunity for tuning carrier behaviors and energy dissipation toward improving photocatalytic efficiency. Adopting strategies to tailor electron-phonon coupling and revealing the underlying mechanism are therefore essential for the development of high-efficiency organic photocatalysts. In this work, an isotope substitution strategy is developed by replacing H in high-frequency C─H oscillators with D to tune the electron-phonon coupling strength of both 1,2,3,5-tetrakis(carbazol-9-yl)-4,6-dicyanobenzene (4CzIPN) and its polymeric derivative. The fitted Huang-Rhys factors exhibit an ≈1.7-fold increase upon isotopic deuteration, revealing enhanced electron-phonon coupling. Comprehensive studies demonstrate that the deuteration strategy can effectively lower exciton binding energy, promote exciton dissociation, and suppress non-radiative energy dissipation, therefore leading to an improved efficiency toward photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. This study highlights the crucial role of electron-phonon coupling on photocatalytic systems and presents a novel regulatory strategy for designing high-efficiency organic photocatalysts.
Authors
- Zirui Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6740-2432)
- Fengtao Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9828-6988)
- Qingzhu Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8156-4219)
- Cheng Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4841-9287)
- Zutao Fan
- Xiaosong Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9999-8840)
- Chenliang Su (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8453-1938)
- Bin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4685-2052)
- Yu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5971-6597)
- Jianfeng Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6558-5239)
- Yunfei Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6641-364X)
- Hongli Sun
- Yanglong Liao
- Yupeng Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2165-7859)
Institutions
- City University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (CN)
- Shenzhen University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Integrated Optoelectronics (Norway) (NO)
- Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy (CN)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (CN)
- Yangzhou University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2025-11-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202516740
- Primary Topic
- Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- City University of Hong Kong
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- Shenzhen University
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Shenzhen Peacock Plan
- Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province