Angew Chem: Adjustable Reduction Potential of Electrons via Quantum Confinement for Selective CO2 Photoreduction to Methanol！

Posted on 2019年01月23日 15:06

CH3OH production from photocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (PCRR) represents a promising route for the clean utilization of renewable resources, but serious charge recombination, unsatisfied stability and poor selectivity limit its practical application. This paper describes the design and fabrication of 0D/2D materials with polymeric C3N4 nanosheets and CdSe quantum dots (QDs) to enhance the separation and reduce the diffusion length of charge carriers. The rapid outflow of carriers also restrains the self‐corrosion and enhance stability. Furthermore, based on quantum confinement effect of QDs, the energy of electrons could be adjusted to an appropriate level to inhibit the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER, the main competitive reaction of CRR) to improve the selectivity and activity for CH3OH from PCRR. The band structures of photocatalysts with various CdSe particle sizes was also quantitatively investigated to establish the relationship between band energy and photocatalytic performance.