Synergistic Effects in Nanoengineered HNb3O8/Graphene Hybrids with Improved Photocatalytic Conversion Ability of CO2 into Renewable Fuels.

Layered HNb3O8/graphene hybrids with numerous heterogeneous interfaces and hierarchical pores were fabricated via the reorganization of exfoliated HNb3O8 nanosheets with graphene nanosheets (GNs). Numerous interfaces and pores were created by the alternative stacking of HNb3O8 nanosheets with limited size and GNs with a buckling and folding feature. The photocatalytic conversation of CO2 into renewable fuels by optimized HNb3O8/G hybrids yields 8.0-fold improvements in CO evolution amounts than that of commercial P25 and 8.6-fold improvements than that of HNb3O8 bulk powders. The investigation on the relationships between microstructures and improved photocatalytic performance demonstrates that the improved photocatalytic performance is attributed to the exotic synergistic effects via the combination of enhanced specific BET surface area, increased strong acid sites and strong acid amounts, narrowed band gap energy, depressed electron-hole recombination rate, and heterogeneous interfaces.