Optical Fiber Chemical Catalysis

Optical Fiber Chemical Catalysis (OFC) represents one of the most important classes of practical multi-layer interfacial chemical devices capable of realizing photo-electrical synergy and multi-field coupling at the engineering level since the pioneering work of Fujishima and Honda on photoelectrochemical water splitting in 1972. This system enables the economical, safe, efficient, and high-energy-density large-scale assembly or distributed deployment of optical fiber chemical reaction units, thereby constructing optical fiber chemical reactors (chemical stacks). The OFC platform allows for the programmable regulation of chemical reaction processes and serves as a core chemical platform for artificial intelligence-driven laboratories and intelligent chemical factories. Its optical fiber membrane electrodes employ photonic crystal fibers or hollow-core optical fibers as both light-transport control elements and interfacial reaction carriers. Catalytic principle: The core of this system lies in the sandwich-structured optical fiber membrane electrode, which achieves synergistic coupling of the optical field, electric field, and proton/ion transport pathways on a single interface through deliberate structural design. Within this architecture, photons, electrons, protons, ions, catalysts, reactants, and products coexist on the same reactive interface, enabling the simultaneous occurrence of photoexcitation and charge separation. This configuration leads to a significant enhancement in catalytic efficiency and establishes the catalytic law of optical fiber chemical catalysis. Based on this principle, OFC is expected to enable key reactions-such as ammonia synthesis, noble-metalfree catalytic fuel cells, organic synthesis, and pharmaceutical processes-under ambient temperature and pressure conditions. Over the next decade, this system is anticipated to develop into one of the major mainstream technological paradigms in the fields of chemical engineering and chemical catalysis.