Chromatic Fulleropyrrolidine as Long-Lived Metal-Free Catalyst for CO 2 Photoreduction Reaction.

Conversion of CO 2 into carbonaceous fuels with the aid of solar energy has been an important research subject for decades. Owing to their excellent electron-accepting capacities, fullerene derivatives have been extensively used as n-type semiconductors. This work reports that the fulleropyrrolidine functionalized with 4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole, abbreviated as DTBT-C 60 , could efficiently catalyze the photoreduction of CO 2 to CO. The novel C 60 -chromophore dyad structure facilitated better usage of solar light and effective dissociation of excitons. Consequently, the DTBT-C 60 exhibited a promising CO yield of 144 μmol g cat -1 under AM1.5G solar illumination for 24 h. Moreover, the isotope experiments demonstrated that water molecules could function as an electron source to reactivate DTBT-C 60 . Impressively, DTBT-C 60 exhibited an extremely durable catalytic activity for more than one week, facilitating the practical application of photochemical CO 2 reaction.