Inorganic photocatalytic units in mesoporous silica for carbon dioxide reduction

Efficient artificial photosynthetic systems require the precise matching of the redox energetics of light absorber, charge separator and catalysts to ensure maximum photon to chemical energy conversion. At the same time, durability favors the use of inorganic components. To address these challenges, all-inorganic heterobinuclear charge transfer chromophores are being developed in mesoporous silica scaffolds that serve as photocatalytic sites for carbon dioxide splitting, or act as visible light charge transfer chromophores for driving water oxidation catalysts. Recent efforts to employ these structures for coupling the reduction and oxidation half reaction, and for driving Cu based nanocluster catalysts for carbon dioxide reduction with visible light will be discussed.