Issue 27, 2023

Selective conversion of CO2 to CH4 enhanced by WO3/In2O3 S-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts with efficient CO2 activation

Abstract

Solar-powered CO2 reduction is a promising approach for mitigating the energy crisis and environmental issues. However, its efficiency is hindered by challenges including difficult CO2 activation, rapid charge recombination, and uncontrollable selectivity. Here, we develop WO3/In2O3 S-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts by depositing In2O3 nanoparticles onto WO3 nanosheets for CO2 photoreduction. The Fermi level difference triggers electron transfer upon coupling, generating an internal electric field pointing from In2O3 to WO3 at the interface. This impels oriented charge transfer and effective separation of the powerful photoinduced carriers. With the unique S-scheme mechanism and the efficient activation of CO2 molecules on the In2O3 surface, the resulting WO3/In2O3 heterostructures exhibit enhanced CO2 photoreduction performance with ∼53.7% selectivity for CH4, without any molecule cocatalyst or scavenger. In situ irradiation X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy, along with density functional theory simulations are conducted to elucidate the photocatalytic and CO2-reduction mechanism, and the enhanced CH4-selectivity.

Graphical abstract: Selective conversion of CO2 to CH4 enhanced by WO3/In2O3 S-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts with efficient CO2 activation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 May 2023
Accepted
07 Jun 2023
First published
08 Jun 2023

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023,11, 14860-14869

Selective conversion of CO2 to CH4 enhanced by WO3/In2O3 S-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts with efficient CO2 activation

Y. He, Z. Yang, J. Yu, D. Xu, C. Liu, Y. Pan, W. Macyk and F. Xu, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023, 11, 14860 DOI: 10.1039/D3TA02951D

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