All-inorganic lead halide perovskites for photocatalysis: a review

Abstract

Nowadays, environmental pollution and the energy crisis are two significant concerns in the world, and photocatalysis is seen as a key solution to these issues. All-inorganic lead halide perovskites have been extensively utilized in photocatalysis and have become one of the most promising materials in recent years. The superior performance of all-inorganic lead halide perovskites distinguish them from other photocatalysts. Since pure lead halide perovskites typically have shortcomings, such as low stability, poor active sites, and ineffective carrier extraction, that restrict their use in photocatalytic reactions, it is crucial to enhance their photocatalytic activity and stability. Huge progress has been made to deal with these critical issues to enhance the effects of all-inorganic lead halide perovskites as efficient photocatalysts in a wide range of applications. In this manuscript, the synthesis methods of all-inorganic lead halide perovskites are discussed, and promising strategies are proposed for superior photocatalytic performance. Moreover, the research progress of photocatalysis applications are summarized; finally, the issues of all-inorganic lead halide perovskite photocatalytic materials at the current state and future research directions are also analyzed and discussed. We hope that this manuscript will provide novel insights to researchers to further promote the research on photocatalysis based on all-inorganic lead halide perovskites.

Fig. 1. Development process of perovskite in the photocatalysis field.

Fig. 2. Colloidal perovskite CsPbX₃ (X = Cl, Br, I) exhibit size- and composition-tunable bandgap energies covering the entire visible spectral region with narrow and bright emission: (a) colloidal solutions in toluene under UV lamp (λ = 365 nm); (b) representative PL spectra (λ_exc = 400 nm for all but 350 nm for CsPbCl₃ samples); (c) typical optical absorption and PL spectra; (d) time-resolved PL decays for all samples shown in (c) except CsPbCl₃.

Fig. 3. Schematic illustrating the formation process for different CsPbX₃ (X = Cl, Br, I) nanocrystals mediated by organic acid and amine ligands at room temperature. Spherical quantum dots represent hexanoic acid and octylamine; nanocubes represent oleic acid and dodecylamine; nanorods represent acetate acid and dodecylamine; few unit cell-thick nanoplatelets represent oleic acid and octylamine.

Fig. 4. TEM images of Mn-doped CsPb(Br/Cl)₃ mixed-halide perovskites (a) sample 1: the ratio of PbBr₂/MnCl₂ is 4 : 1, (b) sample 2: the ratio of PbBr₂/MnCl₂ is 2 : 1, (c) sample 3: the ratio of PbBr₂/MnCl₂ is 2 : 3, (d) sample 4: the ratio of PbBr₂/MnCl₂ is 3 : 7.

Fig. 5. Mechanism diagram of type-II heterojunction (a); mechanism diagram of Z-scheme heterojunction (b); mechanism diagram of S-scheme heterojunction (c).

Fig. 6. Solar reduction CO₂ into fuels under 300 W Xe lamp irradiation by CsPbBr₃ quantum dots: 8.5 nm CsPbBr₃ quantum dots (a) and tunable CsPbBr₃ quantum dots with different particle sizes (b).

Fig. 7. Possible mechanism diagram for cephalosporin antibiotics degradation with Ag–CsPbBr₃/CN composite under visible light irradiation.