Acetate-assistant efficient cation-exchange of halide perovskite nanocrystals to boost the photocatalytic CO_(2) reduction

The judicious implantation of active metal cations into the surface of semiconductor nanocrystal(NC)through cation-exchange is one of the facile and viable strategies to enhance the activity of catalysts for photocatalytic CO_(2)reduction,by shortening the transfer pathway of photogenerated carriers and increasing the active sites simultaneously.However,cation-exchange is hard to achieve for halide perovskite NCs owing to the stable octahedron of[PbX6]4−with strong interaction between halogen and lead.Herein,we report a facile method to overcome this obstacle by replacing partial Br−with acetate(Ac−)to generate CsPbBr_(3) NC(coded as CsPbBr_(3−x)Ac_(x)).A small amount of Ac−instead of Br−does not change the crystal structure of halide perovskite.Owing to the weaker interaction between acetate and lead in comparison with bromide,the corresponding octahedron structure containing acetate in CsPbBr_(3−x)Ac_(x) can be easily opened to realize efficient cation-exchange with Ni^(2+) ions.The resulting high loading amount of Ni^(2+) as active site endows CsPbBr_(3−x)Ac_(x) with an improved performance for photocatalytic CO_(2)reduction under visible light irradiation,exhibiting a significantly increased CO yield of 44.09μmol·g^(−1)·h^(−1),which is over 8 and 3 times higher than those of traditional pristine CsPbBr_(3) and nickel doped CsPbBr_(3) NC,respectively.This work provides a critical solution for the efficient metal doping of low-cost halide perovskite NCs to enhance their photocatalytic activity,promoting their practical applications in the field of photocatalysis.