Facile fabrication of CdIn₂S₄/TiO₂ heterojunction for enhanced solar light efficient CO₂ reduction

Abstract

Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction is a promising solution to simultaneously provide renewable chemical fuels and address the greenhouse effect. However, designing practical photocatalysts with advanced architectures remains challenging. Herein, we report the preparation of a novel CdIn₂S₄/TiO₂ binary heterojunction via an in situ solvothermal approach, which exhibits superior photocatalytic activity for sunlight-driven CO₂ reduction. The CdIn₂S₄/TiO₂ composites exhibit significantly enhanced photocatalytic performance for CO₂ reduction compared to unmodified TiO₂. Among them, the 3% CdIn₂S₄/TiO₂ composite has optimal CO and CH₄ evolution rates of 18.32 and 1.03 μmol·g^–1·h^–1, respectively. The yield of CO is 4.7 times higher than that of pristine TiO₂. This improved photocatalytic activity of the CdIn₂S₄/TiO₂ heterostructure can be attributed to its large surface area, extended light absorption range and high separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, which are supported by the results of photoluminescence spectroscopy and the photoelectrochemical measurements. Moreover, the photocatalytic mechanism based on the binary CdIn₂S₄/TiO₂ heterojunction is proposed and separation process of photogenerated electron-hole pairs is discussed. In brief, we aim to provide insights into the application of TiO₂ in energy conversion processes through the construction of heterogeneous junctions.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

TiO₂ / CdIn₂S₄ / heterojunction / photocatalytic CO₂ reduction

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21663027), the Key Research and Development Program of Gansu Province (Grant No. 21YF5GA068), the Innovative Research Team for Science and Technology of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2022TD-04) and Industry Supporting Project for Gansu Institution of Higher Learning (Grant No. 2021CYZC-26).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-024-2456-7 and is accessible for authorized users.

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