Boron Carbon Nitride Semiconductors Decorated with CdS Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Reduction of CO2

Ternary boron carbon nitride (BCN) semiconductors have been developed as emerging metal-free photocatalysts for visible-light reduction of CO2, but the achieved efficiency is still not satisfying. Herein, we report that the CO2 photoreduction performance of a bulk BCN semiconductor can be substantially improved by surface engineering with CdS nanoparticles. The CdS/BCN photocatalysts are characterized completely by diverse tests (e.g., XRD, FTIR, XPS, DRS, SEM, TEM, N2 sorption, PL, and transient photocurrent spectroscopy). Performance of the CdS/BCN heterostructures is evaluated by reductive CO2 conversion reactions with visible light under benign reaction conditions. Compared with bare BCN material, the optimized CdS/BCN photocatalyst exhibits a 10-fold-enhanced CO2 reduction activity and high stability, delivering a considerable CO production rate of 12.5 μmol h–1 (250 μmol h–1 g–1) with triethanolamine (TEOA) as the reducing agent. The reinforced photocatalytic CO2 reduction activity is mainly assigned to the obviously improved visible-light harvesting and the greatly accelerated separation/transport kinetics of light-triggered electron–hole pairs. Furthermore, a possible visible-light-induced CO2 reduction mechanism is proposed on the basis of photocatalytic and photo(electro)chemical results.