Construction adsorption and photocatalytic interfaces between C, O co-doped BN and Pd-Cu alloy nanocrystals for effective conversion of CO to CO.

Photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide (CO) into fuels is an auspicious route to alleviate the energy and environmental crisis brought by the continuous depletion of fossil fuels. The CO adsorption state on the surface of photocatalytic materials plays a significant role in its efficient conversion. The limited CO adsorption capacity of conventional semiconductor materials inhibit their photocatalytic performances. In this work, a bifunctional material for CO capture and photocatalytic reduction was fabricated by introducing palladium (Pd)-copper (Cu) alloy nanocrystals onto the surface of carbon, oxygen co-doped boron nitride (BN). The elemental doped BN with abundant ultra-micropores had high CO capture ability, and CO was adsorbed in the form of bicarbonate on its surface with the presence of water vapor. The Pd/Cu molar ratio had great impact on the grain size of Pd-Cu alloy and their distribution on BN. The CO molecules tended to be converted to carbon monoxide (CO) at interfaces of BN and Pd-Cu alloys due to their bidirectional interactions to the adsorbed intermediate species while methane (CH) evolution might occur on the surface of Pd-Cu alloys. Owing to the uniform distribution of smaller Pd-Cu nanocrystals on BN, more effective interfaces were created in the PdCu/BN sample and it gave a CO production rate of 7.74 μmolgh under simulated solar light irradiation, higher than the other PdCu/BN composites. This work can pave a new way for constructing effective bifunctional photo-catalysts with high selectivity to convert CO to CO.