Interfacial construction of P25/Bi2WO6 composites for selective CO2 photoreduction to CO in gas-solid reactions

Daohan Liu; Minli Zeng; Zhen Li; Zhiqi Zhu; Yu Chen; Kunyapat Thummavichai; Oluwafunmilola Ola; Nannan Wang; Yanqiu Zhu

doi:10.1039/d3ra00418j

Interfacial construction of P25/Bi₂WO₆ composites for selective CO₂ photoreduction to CO in gas-solid reactions

RSC Adv. 2023 Mar 14;13(13):8564-8576. doi: 10.1039/d3ra00418j.

Authors

Daohan Liu^{1

2}, Minli Zeng¹, Zhen Li¹, Zhiqi Zhu¹, Yu Chen³, Kunyapat Thummavichai^{2

3}, Oluwafunmilola Ola⁴, Nannan Wang^{1

2}, Yanqiu Zhu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-cycle Safety for Composite Structures, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University Nanning 530004 China wangnannan@gxu.edu.cn.
² College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter Exeter EX4 4QF UK Y.zhu@exeter.ac.uk.
³ Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University NE1 8ST UK.
⁴ Advanced Materials Group, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Nottingham Nottingham NG7 2RD UK.

Abstract

Photocatalysis provides an attractive approach to convert CO₂ into valuable fuels, which relies on a well-designed photocatalyst with good selectivity and high CO₂ reduction ability. Herein, a series of P25/Bi₂WO₆ nanocomposites were synthesized by a simple one-step in situ hydrothermal method. The formation of a heterojunction between Bi₂WO₆, which absorbs visible light, and P25, which absorbs ultraviolet light, expands the utilization of sunlight by the catalysts, and consequently, leads to a remarkably enhanced CO₂ selective photoreduction to CO. The maximum CO yield of the P25/Bi₂WO₆ heterojunction under simulated solar irradiation was 15.815 μmol g^-1 h^-1, which was 4.04 and 2.80 times higher than that of pure P25 and Bi₂WO₆, respectively. Our investigations verified a Z-scheme charge migration mechanism based on various characterization techniques between P25 and Bi₂WO₆. Furthermore, in situ DRIFTS uncovered the related reaction intermediates and CO₂ photoreduction mechanism. Our work sheds light on investigating the efficacious construction of Bi₂WO₆-based hybrids for light-driven photocatalysis.