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The photocatalytic reduction of CO2into valuable fuels and sustainable energy has a promising future, yet remains a challenge due to low charge separation efficiency and inadequate active sites. We find that ZnIn2S4-loaded secondary amine-functionalized organic silica (ZnIn2S4/NH–SiO2) was effective for visible-light driven CO2photocatalytic reduction. The ZnIn2S4/NH–SiO2with 40% ZnIn2S4content achieves a CO production rate of 1304.8 μmol g−1h−1at room temperature, which is about 3 times higher than that of pristine ZnIn2S4. The thin ZnIn2S4nanosheet accelerates the separation of photogenerated electron pairs, and the amine groups on ZnIn2S4/NH–SiO2act as active sites for adsorption and activation of CO2, hence facilitating the photoreduction of CO2.

Solar-driven CO2conversion into fuels and sustainable energy has attracted increasing attention around the world. However, the efficiency of the transformation remains relatively low due to the rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. In this work, we prepared a ZnIn2S4–ZnAlOxnanocomposite for visible light driven CO2reduction. The thin layered structure facilitated the photoinduced charge carrier separation and transfer, and also gave excellent adsorption ability towards CO2molecules. Such a nanocatalyst exhibited excellent activity in visible-light driven CO2reduction with a CO optimal formation rate of 1100 μmol g−1h−1, which is 5 times that over bulk ZnIn2S4, and the CO/H2ratio was increased from 0.2 over bulk ZnIn2S4to 1.5 over the ZnIn2S4–ZnAlOxcomposite. In situFT-IR experiments indicated that CO2was reduced on ZnIn2S4–ZnAlOxfollowing a COOH* pathway. This work gives insights into the mechanism of the photocatalytic CO2reduction reaction and inspiration to construct novel heterostructure materials for application in energy and environmental catalysis.