Enhanced carbon dioxide adsorption and carrier separation over amine functionalized zirconium metal organic framework/gold/indium oxide for boosting photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction

Photocatalytic CO2 conversion is a prospective way to mitigate greenhouse effect. In2O3 is widely used in the resource conversion of CO2, but still exists a few drawbacks containing limited CO2 capture and activation, narrow light absorption range, low charge separation and utilization. To overcome these disadvantages, an NH2-UiO-66/Au/In2O3 composite photocatalyst is built, with Au nanoparticles and NH2-UiO-66 decorated on the surface of In2O3 nanorods. Significantly, the improved carrier separation ability is attributed to the Schottky junction at the Au/In2O3 interface and the heterostructure between In2O3 and NH2-UiO-66. And the widened light absorption is attributed to the plasmon effect caused by Au nanoparticles. Moreover, the increase of CO2 adsorption and activation is mainly due to the porosity of NH2-UiO-66, thereby greatly improving photocatalytic CO2RR efficiency of NH2-UiO-66/Au/In2O3 nanorods. The CO yield of NH2-UiO-66/Au/In2O3 is 8.56 μmol g-1 h-1, which is nearly 45 times that of In2O3. This work will present a novel idea to design high-efficient composite photocatalysts for CO2 reduction by multifunctional component synergistic enhancement.