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Updated: Jun 30, 2025

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction Using Homogeneous Carbon Dots with a Molecular Cobalt Catalyst
Dongseok Kim1, Subhajit Bhattacharjee1, Erwin Lam1
1Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK.
Abstract:
A simple and precious-metal free photosystem for the reduction of aqueous CO2 to syngas (CO and H2) is reported consisting of carbon dots (CDs) as the sole light harvester together with a molecular cobalt bis(terpyridine) CO2 reduction co-catalyst. This homogeneous photocatalytic system operates in the presence of a sacrificial electron donor (triethanolamine) in DMSO/H2O solution at ambient temperature. The photocatalytic system exhibits an activity of 7.7 ± 0.2 mmolsyngas gCDs -1 (3.6 ± 0.2 mmolCO gCDs -1 and 4.1 ± 0.1 mmolH2 gCDs -1) after 24 hours of full solar spectrum irradiation (AM 1.5G). Spectroscopic and electrochemical characterization supports that this photocatalytic performance is attributed to a favorable association between CDs and the molecular cobalt catalyst, which results in improved interfacial photoelectron transfer and catalytic mechanism. This work provides a scalable and inexpensive platform for the development of CO2 photoreduction systems using CDs.
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