CMP films possess intrinsic advantages for long-range charge delocalization and sufficient surface reactions due to their high porosity, film-like shape topological structure, and highly conjugated structural extensions. Narrow bandgap and efficient charge separation mechanism are key foundations for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production material without the need for metal co-catalysts [
153]. Wang
et al. synthesized two CMP films that could be used as distinct semiconducting polymers for water splitting powered by visible light [
41]. The band gaps of PTEPB and PTEB were 2.87 and 2.95 eV respectively, which strongly suggested that they were both promising candidates for visible-light photocatalysis. The average H
2 production rate for PTEPB was 218 µmol h
−1 g
−1, while for PTEB, it was 102 µmol h
−1 g
−1. XPS spectra of the catalytically terminated PTEPB and PTEB confirmed the absence of oxidized carbon atoms. It indicated the high stability of their conjugated 1,3-diyne structures. Computational results suggested two possible mechanics for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) happened on PTEPB and PTEB photocatalysts: one was a single-site process involving the formation of *OOH and the other one was a dual-site process requiring the presence of two adjacent active sites to form *O*OH (Figs. S10a and b in Supporting information). In the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), specific carbon atoms in PTEPB like carbon atom "7" served as active sites. This carbon atom showed the most favorable Gibbs free energy change. However, for PTEB, only carbon atom "3" served as an active site, since the reduction potential
Ue provided by photogenerated electrons was small. These computational results unequivocally demonstrated that both PTEPB and PTEB were capable of catalyzing most water-splitting reactions. The OVS-Py-BT CMP synthesized by Kou
et al. had a similar bandgap of 2.83 eV [
154]. However, due to the two-branched structure of precursors, the obtained OVS-Py-BT CMP boasted a BET of 354 m
2/g. The average H
2 production rate for OVS-Py-BT was 1348 µmol h
−1 g
−1, which is 6 times bigger than PTEPB (Fig. S10c in Supporting information). High surface area is important for catalysis, because it guarantees more active sites for reaction, which can accelerate the chemical reaction rate. The suface area of OVS-Py-BT is 4 times bigger than that of compared group. However, apart from using low-functionality precursors, the same group achieved a H
2 production rate of 77,935.10 µmol h
−1 g
−1 by constructing D-
π-A structure [
155]. The introduction of benzoin can promote the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes and facilitate electron transfer and the generation of H
2. Apart from introducing benzoin, introducing nanoparticles like bimetallic AuPd can increase the local temperature of aza-fused CMP nanosheets and achieve highly efficient catalysis under external light illumination without extra heating [
156].