Light-Driven Hydrogen Generation from Methanol Vapor Using Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals
Linzhong Wu, Fei He, Hao Du, Yang Zhang, Sushant Ghimire, Markus Stein, He Huang, Lakshminarayana Polavarapu, Qiao Zhang, Jochen Feldmann, Tushar Debnath, Yiou Wang
Abstract
The facile preparation, structural tunability, and unique optical properties of halide perovskites have led to great success in solar cells and light-emitting devices. However, due to their instability in low-cost polar solvents ( e.g., methanol and water), their application in photocatalysis is currently lagging and usually requires special encapsulation. Herein, we demonstrate that halide perovskite (MAPbBr 3, CsPbBr 3 ) nanocrystals are stable for photocatalytic hydrogen production from methanol/water vapor as proton sources without special protection in the presence of Pt cocatalysts. In methanol vapor, an optimal MAPbBr 3 perovskite NC film exhibits steady hydrogen evolution for ∼20 h under solar irradiation, reaching a marked hydrogen evolution rate of 424 μmol·g –1 ·h –1 . Notably, time-resolved spectroscopies reveal that the diffusion-limited feeding of electron–hole pairs toward Pt clusters dominates the dynamics of charge transfer. This study shows the potential of directly using halide perovskites for light-driven reactions in polar environments.