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Tuning photocatalytic performance of Cs3Bi2Br9 perovskite by g-C3N4 for C(sp3)—H bond activation

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Abstract

All-inorganic halide perovskite (IHP) has been deemed promising in photocatalysis due to tunable bandgap and long lifetime of charge carriers. However, unsatisfactory photocatalytic activity and low stability prevent its practical applications. Rational construction of heterojunctions has been proved to be an efficient way to circumvent these obstacles. Herein, g-C3N4 nanosheet was employed to construct a 2D/2D (2D: two-dimensional) heterostructure with Cs3Bi2Br9 through an electrostatic self-assembly process. Owing to the efficient transfer of photogenerated charge carriers, the activity of Cs3Bi2Br9 was boosted with enhanced generation of carbon centered radicals. The optimized 10% Cs3Bi2Br9/g-C3N4 composite displays the highest benzaldehyde formation rate of 4.53 mmol·h−1g−1 under visible light, which is 41.8 and 2.3 times that of individual g-C3N4 and Cs3Bi2Br9, respectively. The stability of Cs3Bi2Br9 nanosheets and its selectivity for benzaldehyde (from 65% of Cs3Bi2Br9 to 90% of the composite) was enhanced by reducing its surface energy and tuning the reaction pathway, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

This project was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21938002, 21725602, 21776064, and 21975069), the Innovative Research Groups of Hunan Province (No. 2019JJ10001), and Science and Technology Planning Project of Hunan Province (No. 2019RS3010). C. T. Au thanks HNU for an adjunct professorship.

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  1. Zhang-Jun Bai and Yu Mao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Catalytic Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Zhang-Jun Bai, Yu Mao, Bing-Hao Wang, Lang Chen, Sheng Tian, Biao Hu & Shuang-Feng Yin

  2. Key Laboratory of Mineral Cleaner Production and Exploit of Green Functional Materials in Hunan Province, Jishou University, Jishou, 416000, China

    You-Ji Li

  3. College of Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350002, China

    Chak-Tong Au

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  1. Zhang-Jun Bai
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Correspondence to Lang Chen or Shuang-Feng Yin.

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Bai, ZJ., Mao, Y., Wang, BH. et al. Tuning photocatalytic performance of Cs3Bi2Br9 perovskite by g-C3N4 for C(sp3)—H bond activation. Nano Res. 16, 6104–6112 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4835-z

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