Enhanced Photosensitized Hydrogen Production by Encapsulation of Ferrocenyl Dyes into Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes.

Dye-encapsulated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were employed for the construction of a coaxial three-component dye/SWCNT/C60 heterojunction. Despite the larger diameter (∼1.4 nm) of the SWCNTs relative to that set by Flavel's rule (0.95 nm), the photoinduced electron transfer from dye-encapsulated SWCNTs to C60 proceeded smoothly, resulting in the photosensitized evolution of H2 from H2O using a ferrocenyl-based photosensitizer, which was confirmed by the action spectra.