Sunlight-Driven Green Synthesis of Platinum Nanoparticles From Double-Vacancy Halide Perovskite Precursors for Methanol Reforming

The development of synthetic procedures for preparing metal nanoparticles with controlled size using sunlight opens new avenues toward more sustainable methods with lower energy consumption. Herein, we propose the use of double-vacancy halide perovskites as precursors for engineering highly crystalline and small platinum nanoparticles (< 3 nm) under simulated sunlight irradiation, using low concentration of methanol as sacrificial agent at room temperature. The formation of Pt NP was dependent on the methanol concentration impacting in the final Pt particle size distribution and time formation. After purification, this narrow sized Pt NP were employed for the methanol reforming reaction, showing excellent activity after 4 h and high selectivity toward hydrogen production (4.18 mmol·h⁻¹ of H₂), along with other carbon products such as CO (2.26 mmol·h⁻¹), CH₄ (0.54 mmol·h⁻¹), CO₂ (0.28 mmol·h⁻¹), and C₂ species (0.17 mmol·h⁻¹).