Selective CO 2 reduction to HCOOH on a Pt/In 2 O 3 /g-C 3 N 4 multifunctional visible-photocatalyst

Selective photocatalytic reduction of CO has been regarded as one of the most amazing ways for re-using CO . However, its application is still limited by the low CO conversion efficiency. This work developed a novel Pt/In O /g-C N multifunctional catalyst, which exhibited high activity and selectivity to HCOOH during photocatalytic CO reduction under visible light irradiation owing to the synergistic effect between photocatalyst, thermocatalyst, and heterojunctions. Both In O and g-C N acted as visible photocatalysts, in which porous g-C N facilitated H production from water splitting while the In O nanosheets embedded in g-C N pores favored CO fixation and H adsorption onto the Lewis acid sites. Besides, the In O /g-C N heterojunctions could efficiently inhibit the photoelectron-hole recombination, leading to enhanced quantum efficiency. The Pt could act as a co-catalyst in H production from photocatalytic water splitting and also accelerated electron transfer to inhibit electron-hole recombination and generated a plasma effect. More importantly, the Pt could activate H atoms and CO molecules toward the formation of HCOOH. At normal pressure and room temperature, the TON of HCOOH in CO conversion was 63.1 μmol g h and could reach up to 736.3 μmol g h at 40 atm.