Enhanced visible light-driven CO2 reduction activity induced by Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst C60/TpPa (COF)

A family of heterojunction photocatalysts C60/TpPa have been constructed from fullerenes (C60) and TpPa-1 via in-situ solvothermal method firstly. The photocatalytic activity toward CO2 of C60/TpPa has been evaluated through the gas-solid reaction system under pure CO2 and low concentration CO2 (10 %) atmosphere, respectively. The results show that the maximum CO formation rates for C60/TpPa are as high as 48.16 μmol·g−1·h−1 and 90.25 μmol·g−1·h−1 under pure CO2 and 10 % CO2 environment, respectively. The attractive experimental phenomenon is assigned to the existence of CO groups in TpPa-1. Due to the presence of Z-scheme heterojunction, the separation of photoexcited electrons and holes is effectively enhanced, and the photocatalytic performances are significantly improved. This work suggests that the construction of COF-based photocatalysts with heterojunction for efficient photoreduction of CO2 is a promising strategy.