Au Cluster–Nanoparticle Dual Coupling for Photocatalytic CO2 Conversion

CO 2 -selective photoreduction to value-added products is ideal, but its practical application suffers from weak photogenerated carrier separation and insufficient multielectron transport. Herein, we constructed the tricomponent AuNPs@SnO 2 –AuNCs hybrid by decorating Au nanoclusters (AuNCs) on the Au nanoparticle (AuNPs)@SnO 2 core–shell structure. AuNC–NP dual coupling endowed AuNPs@SnO 2 –AuNCs with an excellent CO yield of 64.8 μmol g –1 h –1 during CO 2 photoreduction, which was higher than the role of separate application of AuNCs (25.3 μmol g –1 h –1 ) and AuNPs (16.0 μmol g –1 h –1 ). It was mainly attributed that the coaction of AuNPs and AuNCs not only enhanced the visible light absorption capacity but also improved the photogenerated carrier separation/migration. As a result, the electron-rich AuNCs induced from plasmonic AuNPs and photoexcited SnO 2 promoted the photocatalytic CO 2 -to-CO performance. This work provides a new perspective to design multicomponent photocatalysts for highly efficient CO 2 conversion.