The development of photocatalysts to convert CO2 into useful organic chemicals under visible light is an increasingly important research area because of the fossil fuel shortage and the global warming problem. Recently, we have achieved the successful conversion of CO2 to formic acid under visible-light irradiation by combining a p-type photoactive semiconductor, an N-doped Ta2O5 (N-Ta2O5) powder, and a metal complex electrocatalyst, [Ru(dcbpy)2(CO)2]~(2+) (dcbpy: 4,4'-dicarboxy-2,2'-bipyridine) in acetonitrile/triethanolamine. Photoexicited electrons were transferred from the conduction band of N-Ta2O5 to the Ru-complex, leading to CO2 reduction to formic acid over the catalyst. These hybrid materials were prepared by adsorption of metal complex onto semiconductor surface (adsorption method) like many previous works. An alternative approach to bind metal complex to semiconductor, direct assembling of metal complex on ligand functionalized semiconductor has been reported (direct assembly method).
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