Direct growth of copper(I) oxide nanocubes on graphitic carbon nitrides enhancing aqueous carbon dioxide photoreduction

Semiconductor hybrid structures containing multiple components have been considered an ideal photocatalyst design to generate long-lived charge-separated states. Particularly for the reactions requiring high activation energies, such as a CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), the reaction activity is highly susceptible to the catalyst component and morphology. In this study, we selected g-C3N4 and Cu2O as photocatalytic components having bandgaps suitable for CO2RR. Then, we tried to form good electric junctions between two domains by direct growth of Cu on g-C3N4 using a polyol process. The resulting g-C3N4/Cu2O hybrid was employed as photocatalysts in an aqueous medium without hole acceptors. The catalyst exhibited a noticeable activity (5.4 mmol gcat-1h-1) and quantum yield (3.7%) with a nearly quantitative selectivity for CH4 production, superior to any other photocatalysts for CO2RR. The strong coordination of g-C3N4 to the Cu2O surface could form a conductive junction and induce effective electron transfer enforcing the Z-scheme process for CO2RR in high activity and selectivity. This result ensured the importance of junctions and interfaces in the hybrid catalyst structure to exhibit excellent photocatalytic CO2RR performances.