Halide perovskite for enhancing photocatalytic efficiency: basic characteristics, nanostructure engineering and applications

Abstract

Halide perovskites have been extensively studied for their exceptional photoelectric properties, tunable bandgap structures, and compositional flexibility. This review begins with an overview of their fundamental properties including the classification of the materials and briefly describes the advanced characterization techniques. Moreover, the modification of the size and energy band structure of halide perovskites through nanostructure engineering, i.e., morphology engineering and ingredient engineering, is discussed in depth, as well as various interface engineering strategies including homojunctions, heterojunctions, and Schottky junctions. These approaches further optimize the lifetime and migration efficiency of photogenerated carriers while ensuring reaction efficiency, laying the groundwork for smooth photoreactions. This is followed by a summary of the main current applications in the five main categories, namely, organic synthesis, biomass conversion, CO₂ reduction, hydrogen evolution, and pollutant degradation. In response to the unavoidable degradation problem, in this review, we summarise and analyse the stabilized passivation strategies and prospectively analyse crucial challenges for perovskites in the future. Overall, the nanostructural engineering of halide perovskite offers an efficient route to upgrade its photocatalytic behavior, and the catalytic efficiency can be greatly improved by precisely manipulating the size, morphology, and surface/interfacial properties of the material, demonstrating that the material has tremendous potential for photocatalytic applications.