Converting CO2 and H2 O into carbon-based fuel by IR light is a tough task. Herein, compared with other single-component photocatalysts, the most efficient IR-light-driven CO2 reduction is achieved by an element-doped ultrathin metallic photocatalyst-Ni-doped CoS2 nanosheets (Ni-CoS2 ). The evolution rate of CH4 over Ni-CoS2 is up to 101.8 μmol g-1 h-1 . The metallic and ultrathin nature endow Ni-CoS2 with excellent IR light absorption ability. The PL spectra and Arrhenius plots indicate that Ni atoms could facilitate the separation of photogenerated carriers and the decrease of the activation energy. Moreover, in situ FTIR, DFT calculations, and CH4 -TPD reveal that the doped Ni atoms in CoS2 could effectively depress the formation energy of the *COOH, *CHO and desorption energy of CH4 . This work manifests that element doping in atomic level is a powerful way to control the reaction intermediates, providing possibilities to realize high-efficiency IR-light-driven CO2 reduction.
Keywords: CO2 conversion; infrared photocatalysis; metallic photocatalyst; ultrathin 2D materials.
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