Eosin Y-Functionalized Conjugated Organic Polymers for Visible-Light-Driven CO2 Reduction with H2O to CO with High Efficiency

Visible-light-driven photoreduction of CO2 to energy-rich chemicals in the presence of H2O without any sacrifice reagent is of significance, but challenging. Herein, Eosin Y-functionalized porous polymers (PEosinY-N, N=1-3), with high surface areas up to 610 m(2) g(-1), are reported. They exhibit high activity for the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO in the presence of gaseous H2O, without any photosensitizer or sacrifice reagent, and under visible-light irradiation. Especially, PEosinY-1 derived from coupling of Eosin Y with 1,4-diethynylbenzene shows the best performance for the CO2 photoreduction, affording CO as the sole carbonaceous product with a production rate of 33 mu mol g(-1) h(-1) and a selectivity of 92 %. This work provides new insight for designing and fabricating photocatalytically active polymers with high efficiency for solar-energy conversion.