Bioinspired catalytic pocket promotes CO 2 -to-ethanol photoconversion on colloidal quantum wells
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Sluggish surface reaction is a critical factor that strongly governs the efficiency of photocatalytic solar fuel production, particularly in CO 2 -to-ethanol photoconversion. Here, inspired by the principles underlying enzyme catalytic proficiency and specificity, we report a biomimetic photocatalyst that affords superior CO 2 -to-ethanol photoreduction efficiency (5.5 millimoles gram −1 hour −1 in average with 98.2% selectivity) distinctly surpassing the state of the art. The key is to create a class of catalytic pocket, which contains spatially organized NH 2 …Cu-Se(-Zn) multiple functionalities at close range, over ZnSe colloidal quantum wells. Such structure offers a platform to mimic the concerted cooperation between the active site and surrounding secondary/outer coordination spheres in enzyme catalysis. This is manifested by the chemical adsorption and activation of CO 2 via a bent geometry, favorable stabilization toward a variety of important intermediates, promotion of multielectron/proton transfer processes, etc. These results highlight the potential of incorporating enzyme-like features into the design of photocatalysts to overcome the challenges in CO 2 reduction.
Source: Science Advances
Authors: Rongrong Pan, Qi Wang, Yan Zhao, Zhendong Feng, Yanjun Xu, Zhuan Wang, Yapeng Li, Xiuming Zhang, Haoqing Zhang, Jia Liu, Xiang-Kui Gu, Jiangwei Zhang, Jiangwei Zhang, Yuxiang Weng, Jiatao Zhang, Jiatao Zhang
Institutions: Beijing Institute of Technology, Wuhan University, Inner Mongolia University, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Institute of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China
Language: English
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,500
OpenAlex ID: W4404563761