Integrating CO2 reduction, H2O oxidation and H2 evolution catalysts into a dual S-scheme artificial photosynthetic system for tunable syngas production

Abstract

It remains a challenge to achieve overall photocatalytic conversion of CO2 with H2O into tunable syngas and O2. Herein, by inserting BiVO4 into the heterointerface of hollow core-shell CdS@T-COF S-scheme photocatalyst, an innovative CdS/BiVO4@T-COF dual S-scheme heterojunction is developed, which gives an almost stoichiometric evolution of syngas (453.6 μmol gcat−1 h−1) and O2 (230.5 μmol gcat−1 h−1). Moreover, the CO output and selectivity only decline by around 20% when pure CO2 is replaced by diluted CO2 (15%) atmosphere. The BiVO4 embedding not only augments the internal electric field and band bending, upgrading the separation efficiency of active carriers, but also alters the roles of the components involved, separating the occurrence of CO, O2 and H2 evolution on T-COF, BiVO4 and CdS in lower energy barriers. Besides, varying the T-COF thickness can modulate the availability of CO2, H2O and photon to different sites, thereby adjusting the CO/H2 ratio in a wide window. This work opens an avenue for customizing three-in-one artificial photosynthetic systems for coupling three half reactions.