LAUSR

Conversion of CO 2 into carbonaceous fuels with the aid of solar energy has been an important research subject for decades. Owing to their excellent electron-accepting capacities, fullerene derivatives have been extensively used as n -type semiconductors. This work reports that the fulleropyrrolidine functionalized with 4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole, abbreviated as DTBT-C 60 , can efficiently catalyze the photoreduction of CO 2 to CO with high selectivity. The novel C 60 -chromophore dyad structure facilitates better usage of solar light, effective dissociation of excitons, and restraint of charge-carrier recombination. Consequently, the DTBT-C 60 exhibits a promising CO yield of 144 μmol·gcat -1 under AM1.5G solar illumination for 24 hours. Moreover, the isotope experiments demonstrate that water molecules can function as an electron source to reactivate DTBT-C 60 without the need for other sacrificial electron donors. Impressively, DTBT-C 60 exhibits an extremely durable catalytic activity for more than one week under reaction conditions, facilitating the practical application of photochemical CO 2 reaction.