Engineering a CsPbBr3-based nanocomposite for efficient photocatalytic CO2 reduction: improved charge separation concomitant with increased activity sites

Abstract

Metal-halide perovskite nanocrystals have emerged as one of the promising photocatalysts in the photocatalysis field owing to their low-cost and excellent optoelectronic properties. However, this type of nanocrystals generally displays low activity in photocatalytic CO₂ reduction owing to the lack of intrinsic catalytic sites and insufficient charge separation. Herein, we functionalized CsPbBr₃ nanocrystals with graphitic carbon nitride, containing titanium-oxide species (TiO-CN) to develop an efficient composite catalyst system for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction using water as the electron source. Compared to its congener with pristine CsPbBr₃, the introduction of TiO-CN could not only increase the number of active sites, but also led to a swift interfacial charge separation between CsPbBr₃ and TiO-CN due to their favorable energy-offsets and strong chemical bonding behaviors, which endowed this composite system with an obviously enhanced photocatalytic activity in the reduction of CO₂ to CO with water as the sacrificial reductant. Over 3-fold and 6-fold higher activities than those of pristine CsPbBr₃ nanocrystals and TiO-CN nanosheets, respectively, were observed under visible light irradiation. Our study provides an effective strategy for improving the photocatalytic activity of metal-halide perovskite nanocrystals, thus promoting their photocatalytic application in the field of artificial photosynthesis.