Infrared-Light-Driven CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction Realized by a Charge-Asymmetrical Metallic Conductor.

Hu, Qinyuan; Zhang, Zhixing; Yu, Yanglu; Liu, Wenxiu; Xu, Jiaqi; Yan, Wensheng; Hu, Jun; Zhu, Junfa et al. · Nano Lett · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Until now, there has been a paradox in the utilization of infrared (IR) light, which carries a significant amount of solar energy (around 50% of the spectrum), for carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) photoreduction. Given this, we propose a metallic conductor with charge-asymmetrical active sites, which realizes IR-driven CO<sub>2</sub> reduction into C<sub>2</sub> fuels using water as the reducing agent. Taking the CuInS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets as an example, their metallic nature is verified by valence-band X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical calculations, which enable IR light absorption. Their charge-asymmetrical active sites, confirmed by Bader charge calculations, promote C-C coupling. We employ cobalt atom doping to increase the asymmetric charge distribution on the Cu and In atoms in the CuInS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets, lowering the *COH-CO formation energy barrier. These results further verify that the charge-asymmetrical active sites in a metallic conductor can boost C-C coupling for generating C<sub>2</sub> products for IR-driven CO<sub>2</sub> reduction.