All-Inorganic CsPbBr ₃ Nanocrystals: Gram-Scale Mechanochemical Synthesis and Selective Photocatalytic CO ₂ Reduction to Methane

Halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs), primarily regarded as optoelectronic materials for LED and photovoltaic devices, have not been applied for photochemical conversion (e.g., water splitting or CO2 reduction) applications because of their insufficient stability in the presence of moisture or polar solvents. Herein, we report the use of CsPbBr3 QDs as novel photocatalysts to convert CO2 into solar fuels in nonaqueous media. Under AM 1.5G simulated illumination, the CsPbBr3 QDs steadily generated and injected electrons into CO2, catalyzing CO2 reduction at a rate of 23.7 μmol/g h with a selectivity over 99.3%. Additionally, through the construction of a CsPbBr3 QD/graphene oxide (CsPbBr3 QD/GO) composite, the rate of electron consumption increased 25.5% because of improved electron extraction and transport. This study is anticipated to provide new opportunities to utilize halide perovskite QD materials in photocatalytic applications.

The effectiveness of reduced graphene oxide as a solid electron mediator for water splitting in the Z-scheme photocatalysis system is demonstrated. We show that a tailor-made, photoreduced graphene oxide can shuttle photogenerated electrons from an O(2)-evolving photocatalyst (BiVO(4)) to a H(2)-evolving photocatalyst (Ru/SrTiO(3):Rh), tripling the consumption of electron-hole pairs in the water splitting reaction under visible-light irradiation.