Promotion of CO2 reduction in a nanophotocatalyst by hydrogen peroxide

Based on environmental concerns and the worldwide energy crisis, CO 2 photoreduction into value-added chemicals has attracted considerable attention. However, insufficient reducing forces remain a key challenge. A nanophotocatalyst, constructed by synchronously embedding formate dehydrogenase and CdS into a zeolitic imidazolate framework, promotes CO 2 photoreduction by relying on photo and chemical reducing forces. Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) can replace water (H 2 O) to provide protons and electrons for CO 2 photoreduction. Compared with adding reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) only, the yield of formic acid and the maximum catalytic rate increased by 2.78 and 2.55 times with adding NADH and H 2 O 2 together as a reducing force. Protons and electrons from photolyzed H 2 O 2 as a chemical reducing force and CdS as a photo reducing force together promote the cofactor regeneration, which in turn enhances CO 2 photoreduction. This work is expected to guide a simple green method for promoting CO 2 photoreduction to prepare value-added chemicals and solar fuels.