A tube-like dual Z-scheme indium oxide@indium phosphide/cuprous oxide photocatalyst based on metal-organic framework for efficient CO reduction with water.

Developing a photocatalyst for efficient reduction of carbon dioxide (CO) is a long-term goal to address global climate change. In this work, a tube-like indium oxide@indium phosphide/cuprous oxide (InO@InP/CuO) photocatalyst was prepared by annealing-phosphidation of In-Materials of Institute Lavoisier-68 (In-MIL-68) followed by electrodeposition of CuO, which was used to reduce CO with water under light irradiation. Partial phosphidation of InO endowed InO@InP/CuO with strong light-harvesting ability. The InO@InP heterojunction combined with in situ loaded CuO provided a dual Z-scheme heterojunction for efficient electrons-holes separation. Under the synergisms of each component, the optimized InO@InP/CuO-1 exhibited strong adsorption of CO and excellent photocatalytic performance in CO reduction. The yields of CO and CH were 13.7 and 38.8 μmol g, respectively, after 5 h simulated light illumination, higher than the corresponding yields with InO (CO: 7.2 μmol g, CH: 13.2 μmol g). This study may provide some insights into the design of specific ternary photocatalysts with dual Z-scheme charge transfer mode for CO reduction.