Construction of CsPbBr3/carboxyl-modified rGO heterostructures for efficient photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methanol

Solar-driven artificial photosynthesis by the use of photocatalysts to convert CO2 into valuable chemical fuels provided a promising route to simultaneously alleviate the energy crisis and resolve environmental issues caused by CO2. Among the many CO2 reduction products, CH3OH is very desirable, not only because of its use in the preparation of many commercial chemicals, but also it is easy to store and handle. However, the reduction to form CH3OH directly was difficult to control. In recent years, CsPbBr3 NCs have emerged as potential photocatalysts for CO2 reduction due to their unique optoelectronic properties. Herein, the heterostructure of CsPbBr3 and carboxyl-modified rGO (rGO-COOH) was designed for photocatalytic CO2 reduction. In the solid-vapor reaction mode, only CO and CH3OH were detected for all samples after 2 h of photocatalytic reaction. Through the construction of CsPbBr3/rGO-COOH composites, the total yield of CO and CH3OH products was 88.296 mu mol g(-1) and 90.300 mu mol g(-1), respectively. The average electron consumption rate (R-electron) was 359.196 mu mol g(-1) h(-1), which was higher than that of previously reported CsPbBr3-based catalysis. This study provides new insights for designing CsPbBr3 composites and opens up new possibilities to utilize CsPbBr3 NCs to obtain CH3OH in photocatalytic applications.