Plasmonic Hot Electrons from Oxygen Vacancies for Infrared Light‐Driven Catalytic CO2 Reduction on Bi2O3−x

Abstract Current plasmonic photocatalysts are mainly based on noble metal nanoparticles and rarely work in the infrared (IR) light range. Herein, cost‐effective Bi 2 O 3− x with oxygen vacancies was formed in situ on commercial bismuth powder by calcination at 453.15 K in atmosphere. Interestingly, defects introduced into Bi 2 O 3− x simultaneously induced a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in the wavelength range of 600–1400 nm and enhanced the adsorption for CO 2 molecules, which enabled efficient photocatalysis of CO 2 ‐to‐CO (ca. 100 % selectivity) even under low‐intensity near‐IR light irradiation. Significantly, the apparent quantum yield for CO evolution at 940 nm reached 0.113 %, which is approximately 4 times that found at 450 nm. We also showed that the unique LSPR allows for the realization of a nearly linear dependence of photocatalytic CO production rate on light intensity and operating temperature. Finally, based on an IR spectroscopy study, an oxygen‐vacancy induced Mars‐van Krevlen mechanism was proposed to understand the CO 2 reduction reactions.