Colloidal Synthesis for Controllable and Tunable Materials in Artificial Photosynthesis

Raffaella Buonsanti^a

^aEcole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting19 (NFM19)

#SolFuel19. Solar Fuel Synthesis: From Bio-inspired Catalysis to Devices

Berlin, Germany, 2019 November 3rd - 8th

Organizers: Roel van de Krol and Erwin Reisner

Invited Speaker, Raffaella Buonsanti, presentation 100
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2019.100
Publication date: 18th July 2019

Converting water and carbon dioxide into value-added chemicals, including fuels, with sunlight requires new materials which allow the transformation involved to be efficient and selective. Our work highlights how colloidal chemistry can aid to construct materials and to develop new concepts for storing energy in chemical bonds, namely artificial photosynthesis. [1-8] The first part of this talk will focus on the design of Cu-based heterogeneous catalysts for selective conversion of CO₂ while suppressing the hydrogen evolution reaction, which is a big challenge in the field at the moment. We show the importance of size, shape and interfaces to tune the intrinsic activity and selectivity of copper. [1-6] In the second part, I will discuss our recent progress on protection schemes for perovskite nanocrystals to enable their use as light absorbers in artificial photosynthesis, something impeded so far by their instability in polar environments. Our approach consists in using thin shells of metal oxides, deposited via gas-phase or colloidal atomic layer deposition, which still enable charge transfer.[7,8] Eventually, the two classes of materials will be combined to drive CO₂ conversion using sunlight.

References:

[1] J. Huang, R. Buonsanti "Colloidal nanocrystals as heterogeneous catalysts for electrochemical CO2 conversion" Chem. Mater. 2019, 31, 13

[2] A. Loiudice, P. Lobaccaro, E.A. Kamali, T. Thao, B.H. Hung, J.W. Ager, R. Buonsanti* “Tailoring Cu nanocrystals towards C2 products in electrochemical CO2 reduction” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 5789

[3] J. Huang, N. Hörmann, E. Oveisi, A. Loiudice, G. De Gregorio, O. Andreussi, N. Marzari, R. Buonsanti* “Potential-induced nanoclustering of metallic catalysts during electrochemical CO2reduction” Nature Communications 2018, 9, 3117

[4] P. Iyengar J. Huang, G.L. De Gregorio, C. Gadiyar, R. Buonsanti* “Size-dependent selectivity of Cu nano-octahedra catalysts for the electrochemical CO2 reduction to CH4” Chem. Commun. 2019, just accepted

[5] J. Huang, M. Mounir, E. Oveisi, V. Mantella, R. Buonsanti* “Structural sensitivities in bimetallic catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction revealed by Ag-Cu nanodimers” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 2490

[6] S. B. Varandili, J. Huang, E. Oveisi, G.L. De Gregorio, Mounir, M. Strach, J. Vavra, C. Gadiyar, A. Bhowmik, R. Buonsanti* “Synthesis of Cu/CeO2-x heterodimers with interfacial active sites to promote CO2 electroreduction” ACS Catalysis 2019, 9, 5035

[7] A. Loiudice+, S. Saris+, E. Oveisi, D.T.L. Alexander, R. Buonsanti* “CsPbBr3 QD/AlOx inorganic nanocomposites with exceptional stability in water, light and heat” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 10957

[8] A. Loiudice, M. Strach, S. Saris, D. Chernyshov, R. Buonsanti* “Universal Oxide Shell Growth Enables In-situ Structural Studies of Perovskite Nanocrystals during the Anion Exchange Reaction” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 8254

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