Immobilizing Re(CO)3Br(dcbpy) Complex on CsPbBr3 Nanocrystal for Boosted Charge Separation and Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction

The excellent photoelectrical properties have rendered lead halide perovskites potential candidates for photocatalytic CO2 reduction, but they still suffer from the low charge separation efficiency and slow catalytic reaction dynamics. To tackle these drawbacks, herein, a novel CsPbBr3-Re(CO)(3)Br(dcbpy) (dcbpy=4,4'-dicarboxy-2,2'-bipyridine) composite photocatalyst is elaborately designed and fabricated by anchoring the complex molecules onto the surface of CsPbBr3 nanocrystal to work as co-catalyst. Owing to the robust interfacial interaction, effective electron extraction from CsPbBr3 to complex molecules can be established, which enables the mutual synergetic action to get boosted visible-light-driven catalytic activity and product selectivity. As an encouraging result, a high electron consumption rate of 73.34 mu mol g(-1) h(-1) is yielded for the optimized CsPbBr3-Re(600) sample, which is about 23-fold of that of pristine CsPbBr3. In addition, a praiseworthy CO selectivity of up to 95% is obtained. The composite catalyst also exhibits good catalytic stability, and a CO yield of 509.14 mu mol g(-1) is achieved after 15 h of continuous illumination. This result may provide a new strategy to design efficient lead halide perovskite-based heterogeneous photocatalysts.