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Photocatalytic reduction of CO 2 to solar fuels is recognized as a promising route to address environmental and energy issues. However, there exist two challenges of insufficient CO 2 activation and fast charge carrier recombination, impeding this conversion. Herein, a hierarchical Co 9 S 8 @In 2.77 S 4 (CoS@InS) heterojunction is developed by the in situ growth of the In 2.77 S 4 nanosheets on the Co 9 S 8 nanotubes for efficient photocatalytic reduction of CO 2 to syngas in an aqueous reaction system with Ru(bpy) 3 Cl 2 serving as a photosensitizer and triethanolamine as a sacrificial agent. In addition to the promoted charge separation and transfer, the strong interfacial electric field formed in this heterojunction tunes the p-band center of In active sites toward the Fermi level. Accordingly, the adsorption of the key intermediate *COOH is enhanced, and the energy barrier of *CO desorption is reduced. Besides, the hierarchical hollow structure enhances light utilization and mass transfer, increases the specific surface area, and provides abundant reaction sites. As a result, the hierarchical CoS@InS heterojunction exhibits superior activity. The optimized heterojunction yields CO and H 2 production rates as high as 83,648 and 28,635 μmol g –1 h –1, respectively, with an apparent quantum yield of 5.60% at 450 nm.
Zhao et al. (Wed,) studied this question.