Synergistic effect on photocatalytic CO2 reduction of facet-engineered Fe-soc-MOFs with photo-deposited PtO species

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (PCO2RR) holds potential for mitigating global warming and achieving carbon neutrality. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as promising photocatalysts due to their tunable light absorption, CO2 adsorption and photoelectrical properties. This study reports synergistic effect of facet engineering and photo-deposited PtO species on Fe-soc-MOFs for enhanced PCO2RR performance. Three Fe-soc-MOFs, namely Fe-soc-O, Fe-soc-M and Fe-soc-C, were synthesized and evaluated the photocatalytic properties in a gas–solid phase system using H2O as sacrificial agent. Fe-soc-O exposing eight {1 1 1} facets exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity, achieving a CO selectivity of 63.4 %. After depositing PtO species, Fe-soc-O1.5 (1.5 represents 1.5 wt% Pt loading) demonstrates the most pronounced improvement in performance, with CO and CH4 yields of 285.6 and 18.1 µmol/g, surpassing Fe-soc-O by ratio of 11.8 and 1.2, respectively. Notably, Fe-soc-O1.5 shows an impressive CO selectivity of 94.0 %. The enhanced CO2-to-CO conversion was attributed to the efficient separation and transfer of photo-induced electrons, along with effective adsorption/desorption of intermediates on the photocatalyst surface. This work underscores the significance of integrating facet engineering and PtO deposition to optimize MOF-based photocatalysts for efficient CO2 reduction. The findings provide valuable insights for design of high-performance catalysts toward sustainable CO2 utilization.