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 CO 2 reduction, but they still suffer from the low charge separation efficiency and slow catalytic reaction dynamics. To tackle these drawbacks, herein, a novel CsPbBr 3 -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 CsPbBr 3 nanocrystal to work as co-catalyst. Owing to the robust interfacial interaction, effective electron extraction from CsPbBr 3 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 μmol g −1 h −1 is yielded for the optimized CsPbBr 3 -Re(600) sample, which is about 23-fold of that of pristine CsPbBr 3 . 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 μmol 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.