Hydrothermal synthesis of Ce-doped SnS2 2D nanoplates with enhanced photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance

Abstract

CO2 emissions caused by human activities seriously influence the climate of earth and hinder the sustainable development of humans and nature. Photocatalytic CO2 reduction is an effective method to convert CO2 into other chemicals and reduce CO2 emissions. Here, Ce doped SnS2 photocatalyst has been obtained by using a hydrothermal method. The phase and structure of obtained samples have been characterized and the photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance has been evaluated. The results show that Ce dopants can improve visible light absorption, increase the specific surface area, especially increase the adsorption of CO2. The influence of Ce doping concentration was investigated to optimize the photocatalytic performance. Compared to the pristine SnS2 photocatalyst, the Ce–SnS2 reached 46.9 μmol g−1 h−1 in the CO2 photo-reduced test, which is 3.21 times that of pristine SnS2 photocatalyst. The enhanced photocatalytic performance can be attributed to Ce dopant which increases the specific surface and CO2 absorption quantity, and reduces the recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes.