Anchoring palladium nanoparticles on CsPbBr3 perovskite nanocrystals for enhanced photocatalytic CO2 reduction

Recently, all-inorganic cesium lead halide (CsPbX 3 (X = Cl, Br, and I) perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have been extensively investigated for photocatalytic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) reduction reaction (CO 2 RR). However, because the pristine CsPbX 3 NCs suffer from severe radiative recombination, it is imperative to elaborately design heterostructures to separate electron-hole pairs for achieving efficient CO 2 RR. Herein, palladium (Pd) nanoparticles (NPs) are anchored on CsPbBr 3 NCs by a photo-assisted approach for the first time. The as-prepared CsPbBr 3 @Pd NCs not only build Schottky junctions at the CsPbBr 3 /Pd interfaces that promote the carrier separation and suppress the radiative recombination, but also exhibit lower energy barriers for photocatalytic CO 2 RR than pristine CsPbBr 3 NCs according to the density functional theory calculations. The electron consumption rate reaches a striking peak of 46.2 µmol g −1 h −1 by using CsPbBr 3 @Pd NCs as photocatalysts for CO 2 RR, which is 4.8-fold of the counterpart of pristine CsPbBr 3 NCs. This work not only presents a photo-assisted strategy for anchoring Pd NPs on CsPbBr 3 NCs, but also demonstrates the great potential of using CsPbBr 3 @Pd NCs for photocatalytic CO 2 RR.