Fabricated local surface plasmon resonance Cu2O/Ni-MOF hierarchical heterostructure photocatalysts for enhanced photoreduction of CO2

The electron density on the catalyst surface has a great influence on the multi-electron transport process of photocatalytic reduction of CO2. In this work, hierarchical Cu2O/Ni-MOF composite photocatalyst with local surface plasmon resonance (SPR) properties was prepared by simple hydrothermal and water bath methods. Through DRS, XPS and AES tests found that the SPR of Cu0 expanded the light absorption, provided hot electrons for the reaction system, and greatly improved the photocatalytic activity in coordination with the hierarchical structure and heterostructure. In the absence of sacrificial agent, the CO yield of 30%-Cu2O/Ni-MOF was 4.1 times of Cu2O (5.32 μmol/g) and 11.1 times of Ni-MOF (1.95 μmol/g), respectively. Then, the possible photocatalytic reaction path was simply speculated based on in-situ FT-IR. In conclusion, the hierarchical structure, heterostructure and SPR effect accelerate the kinetics of Cu2O/Ni-MOF photocatalytic reaction, thus improving its photocatalytic activity.