Enhanced photocatalytic CO 2 conversion of a CdS/Co-BDC nanocomposite via Co(ii)/Co(iii) redox cycling

• Published in: RSC advances 2024-08, Vol.14 (35), p.25247-25255
• Main Authors: Xuan, Ruina, Mo, Jieqiong, Chen, Jiwen, Dou, Yixin, Li, Xiaofang, Jiang, Zhuo, Chai, Bo, Wang, Chunlei, Ding, Deng, Yan, Juntao, Wang, Xiaobo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/D4RA04842C

Photocatalytic CO reduction into value-added chemical fuels using sunlight as the energy input has been a thorny, challenging and long-term project in the environment/energy fields because of to its low efficiency. Herein, a series of CdS/Co-BDC composite photocatalysts were constructed by incorporating CdS nanoparticles into Co-BDC using a dual-solvent growth strategy for improving photocatalytic CO reduction efficiency. The composites were characterized through XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, DRS and EPR techniques in detail. 18% CdS/Co-BDC composites showed superior performance for the photocatalytic CO reduction to CO, which was 8.9 and 19.6 times higher than that showed by the pure CdS and Co-BDC, respectively. The mechanism of enhanced photocatalytic CO reduction performance was analyzed. The CdS/Co-BDC composites showed better adsorption for CO . Detailed analysis of XPS, transient photocurrent responses, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) shows the existence of strong charge interaction between CdS and Co-BDC and the photo-electrons of CdS can be transferred to Co-BDC. Additionally, Co-oxo of Co-BDC plays the role of a redox-active site and promotes the reduction performance the method of valence transition of Co(ii)/Co(iii) redox.