Significantly enhanced photothermal catalytic CO reduction over TiO/g-CN composite with full spectrum solar light.

Using solar energy to drive catalytic conversion of CO into value-added chemicals has great potential to alleviate the global energy shortage and anthropogenic climate change. Herein, a "hitting three birds with one stone" strategy was reported to prepared boron-doped g-CN/TiO composite (BCT) by a one-step thermal reduction process. A series of characterizations showed that the composite catalyst has extended full-spectrum absorption, rapid photogenerated charge separation, and outstanding CO photoreduction performance (265.2 μmol gh), which is 7.5 and 9.2 times higher than that of pure TiO and g-CN, respectively. In addition, the CO conversion rate can be further increased to 345.1 μmol gh at 70 °C due to its excellent photothermal conversion. Mechanistic studies reveal that synergistic effects alter the charge density distribution, thereby lowering the energy barrier for CO conversion by adsorbing and activating CO molecules This work provides a novel three-in-one integrated strategy for fabricating high-efficiency catalysts.