A Doughnut-Like Eu30 Catalyst for CO₂ Photoreduction with Turnover Numbers Over Ten Million

Area of Science:

• Catalysis
• Materials Science
• Inorganic Chemistry

Background:

• Polynuclear metal clusters offer unique structures for high-performance catalysis.
• CO2 reduction is a critical process for sustainable energy and chemical production.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and evaluate novel polynuclear lanthanide clusters for CO2 reduction.
• To investigate the catalytic activity and selectivity of Eu30 and Dy30 clusters.

Main Methods:

• In situ tandem reaction for synthesizing 30-nuclear doughnut-like lanthanide clusters (Eu30 and Dy30).
• Visible-light-driven CO2-to-CO conversion experiments.
• Experimental and computational analysis of catalytic performance and mechanism.

Main Results:

• Eu30 demonstrated high-performance catalysis for CO2-to-CO conversion with 98% selectivity.
• Eu30 achieved a record-high turnover number of 1.720 × 10^7.
• The catalytic activity of Eu30 is attributed to its high redox activity and optimal LUMO energy level.

Conclusions:

• Eu30 represents the first pure lanthanide cluster catalyst for efficient CO2 reduction.
• Lanthanide clusters can serve as effective active centers for CO2 conversion.
• The findings pave the way for developing advanced lanthanide-based catalysts.