Comment on “Photochemical reduction of carbon dioxide coupled with water oxidation using various soft-oxometalate (SOM) based catalytic systems” (J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 8875–8887)

Abstract

In the work mentioned in the title of this Comment, Roy et al. claimed highly efficient catalysts for coupled carbon dioxide photochemical reduction and water oxidation [J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 8875–8887] and attributed the mechanism to the self-assembly of the catalytic clusters. I propose several points of serious scientific issues in this article related to the characterization of the catalyst clusters, the self-assembled structures, their catalytic performance and characterization and propose opposite conclusions based on the data reported and the literature.