Fullerene polymer film as a highly efficient photocatalyst for selective solar fuel production from CO2

ABSTRACT C60‐based polymeric systems have been constantly anticipated for sustainable solar energy conversion. Reported, herein is a C60 polymer film as visible light active photocatalyst for efficient and selective reduction of CO2 for the first time. The C60 polymer photocatalyst is synthesized via covalent coupling of C60 monomer units consisting of tetra substituted C60‐pyrene conjugates through spacer groups. The synthesized C60 polymer photocatalyst possesses an extended network of well‐defined repeating monomer units with good stability and visible light‐induced photocatalytic activity. The enhanced visible light harvesting ability of C60 polymer photocatalyst reasonably yields it with higher catalytic ability than its monomer unit. The C60 polymer film photocatalyst upon coupling with the biocatalyst carries out highly selective visible light driven reduction of CO2 to HCOOH (239.46 μmol). The tandem way of incorporating C60 into visible light active polymeric films for continuous use may be highly rewarding for their extended photocatalytic activity for solar fuel production from CO2. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48536. The present work explicates the first example of fullerene polymer film as a highly efficient photocatalyst for selective solar fuel production from CO2