Engineering halide perovskites for artificial leaves

制造人造树叶，更大规模地复制植物通过自然光合作用形成碳水化合物时所做的事情，是创建可持续社会的宏伟抱负。这种技术的成功有可能使我们在聚合物合成、制药和运输应用(例如汽车燃料)方面不再依赖化石资源，而是允许我们使用大气或烟气中的二氧化碳。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)中强调了这一潜力。与此相适应，美国能源部已将光驱二氧化碳转化确定为优先研究方向，化学工程师学会(IChemE)最近成立了一个新的专门小组，致力于替代能源和可再生能源。许多活性半导体光催化剂，如二氧化钛和氧化锌，已经被证明可以光催化转化二氧化碳。然而，由于其固有的局限性，如太阳吸收率低，光生电荷寿命短，它们在太阳照射下的产品产率较低。要使CO2太阳能光催化还原成为一种可行和商业化的技术，还需要对新材料进行进一步的研究。这项研究项目旨在开发具有卤化物钙钛矿的人造叶子，这是一种在光伏领域取得前所未有成功的新材料，由于其存在化学和结构不稳定性，在光催化方面仍未被探索。我们将开发智能方法，使用导电层来保护它们免受分解，此外，还将设计和优化有利于它们的光催化活性和保存的反应器和反应条件。这样，卤化物钙钛矿将成为光催化领域的新领跑者，确保在为今世后代更可持续地混合清洁能源和原料方面取得重要进展。

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.