Selective Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction in Water by Electrostatic Assembly of CdS Nanocrystals with a Dinuclear Cobalt Catalyst

In the photocatalytic conversion of CO2 to valuable chemicals under aqueous conditions, the selectivity and the product yield still present the most challenging issues. Against this backdrop, negatively charged water-soluble CdS nanocrystals were used to assemble with a positively charged dinuclear cobalt complex through electrostatic interactions. This assembly efficiently catalyzes the CO2-to-CO conversion under visible light, with a high selectivity of 95%, a high yield of 34.51 μmol of CO, and a large turnover number (TON) of 1380 based on the cobalt catalyst, all of which are record high values for a noble-metal-free visible-light-driven CO2 reduction system with a molecular catalyst in a fully aqueous medium.