Rapid electron transfer via dynamic coordinative interaction boosts quantum efficiency for photocatalytic CO2 reduction

The fulfillment of a high quantum efficiency for photocatalytic CO2 reduction presents a key challenge, which can be overcome by developing strategies for dynamic attachment between photosensitizer and catalyst. In this context, we exploit the use of coordinate bond to connect a pyridine-appended iridium photosensitizer and molecular catalysts for CO2 reduction, which is systematically demonstrated by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance titration, theoretical calculations, and spectroscopic measurements. The mechanistic investigations reveal that the coordinative interaction between the photosensitizer and an unmodified cobalt phthalocyanine significantly accelerates the electron transfer and thus realizes a remarkable quantum efficiency of 10.2% ± 0.5% at 450 nm for photocatalytic CO2-to-CO conversion with a turn-over number of 391 ± 7 and nearly complete selectivity, over 4 times higher than a comparative system with no additional interaction (2.4%±0.2%). Moreover, the decoration of electron-donating amino groups on cobalt phthalocyanine can optimize the quantum efficiency up to 27.9% ± 0.8% at 425 nm, which is more attributable to the enhanced coordinative interaction rather than the intrinsic activity. The control experiments demonstrate that the dynamic feature of coordinative interaction is important to prevent the coordination occupancy of labile sites, also enabling the wide applicability on diverse non-noble-metal catalysts.