查看文章

Increasing atmospheric CO₂ levels have generated much concern, driving the ongoing carbon sequestration effort. A compelling CO₂ sequestration option is its photocatalytic conversion to hydrocarbons, for which the use of solar irradiation represents an ultimate solution. Here we report a new strategy of using surface-functionalized small carbon nanoparticles to harvest visible photons for subsequent charge separation on the particle surface in order to drive the efficient photocatalytic process. The aqueous solubility of the catalysts enables photoreduction under more desirable homogeneous reaction conditions. Beyond CO₂ conversion, the nanoscale carbon-based photocatalysts are also useful for the photogeneration of H₂ from water under similar conditions.