Engineering halide perovskites for artificial leaves

人造叶子的制造可以大规模地复制植物通过自然光合作用形成碳水化合物的过程，这是创造可持续社会的宏伟目标。如果成功，我们就有可能在聚合物合成、制药制造和运输应用（如汽车燃料）方面停止对化石资源的依赖，而是允许我们使用大气或烟道气中的二氧化碳。英国皇家化学学会在最近发布的报告《太阳能燃料和人工光合作用》（2012）中强调了这种潜力。与此一致，美国能源部已将光驱动二氧化碳转换确定为优先研究方向，化学工程师学会（IChemE）最近成立了一个专门研究替代能源和可再生能源的特殊兴趣小组。许多活性半导体光催化剂，如二氧化钛和氧化锌，已被证明具有光催化转化二氧化碳的作用。然而，由于其固有的局限性，如低太阳吸收和光致电荷的寿命短，它们在太阳照射下的产品产量很低。为了使二氧化碳太阳能光催化还原成为可行的商业技术，需要进一步研究新型材料。该研究项目旨在开发含有卤化物钙钛矿的人造叶片，这种新型材料在光伏领域取得了前所未有的成功，但由于其化学和结构不稳定，在光催化方面尚未得到开发。我们将开发智能方法，使用导电层保护它们免受分解，并且设计和优化有利于其光催化活性和保存的反应器和反应条件。通过这种方式，卤化物钙钛矿将成为光催化领域的新领跑者，确保在为当前和后代提供更可持续的清洁能源和原料组合方面取得重要进展。

The manufacturing of artificial leaves that reproduces at larger scale what plants do when they form carbohydrates by natural photosynthesis is a grand ambition for the creation of a sustainable society. Success has the potential to cease our dependence on fossil sources for polymer syntheses, pharmaceutical manufacture, and transport applications (e.g. fuels in cars) and instead allow us to use atmospheric or flue gas CO2. The Royal Society of Chemistry emphasises this potential in the recently launched report "Solar Fuels and Artificial Photosynthesis" (2012). In line with this, the US Department of Energy has identified the photo-driven conversion of CO2 as a priority research direction and The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) has recently launched a new special interest group dedicated to alternative and renewable energy. Many active semiconductor photocatalysts such as titania and zinc oxide have been proven to photocatalytically convert CO2. However, they offer low yields of products under sun irradiation due to their intrinsic limitations such as low solar absorption and short lifetime of photoinduced charges. To make CO2 solar photocatalytic reduction a viable and commercial technology further research on novel materials is needed. This research project aims to develop artificial leaves with halide perovskites, novel materials of unprecedented success in photovoltaics that remain unexplored in photocatalysis because they suffer from chemical and structural instability. We will develop smart approaches to protect them from decomposition using conductive layers and moreover design and optimise the reactors and reaction conditions that favour their photocatalytic activity as well as their preservation. This way halide perovskites will become a new front-runner in the field of photocatalysis, ensuring important advances towards a more sustainable mix of clean energy and feedstocks for current and future generations.