Single-step synthesis of novel Bi2Fe4O9 nanosheets for high-efficient photocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO

It is rather essential to design efficient semiconductor photocatalytic materials to achieve CO2 green conversion to solar fuels. In this work, novel Bi2Fe4O9 nanosheets are successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method, and applied to the photocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO for the first time. The good nanosheet structure and suitable redox potential of Bi2Fe4O9 bring out not only good photo-effect capability but also effective photo-generated carriers, leading to excellent CO2 photo-reduction activity with CO generation rate of 17.66 μmol·g−1·h−1 (10 h), more than ultramodern reported 13.1 μmol·g−1·h−1 (8 h) of Bi4Ti3O12 hollow-spheres and 3.975 μmol·g−1·h−1 (8 h) of (BiO)2CO3 under simulated sunlight irradiation. More importantly, its performance remains at about 98% after ten consecutive cycle tests, indicating the excellent active stability of Bi2Fe4O9. This work provides new insights into designing and preparation of Bi2Fe4O9-based semiconductor photocatalysts for high-efficient photocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO in the future.