Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (4): 812-821.doi: 10.1007/s40242-025-5090-0

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Cu Sites Synergistic Double Heterojunction Engineering for Enhancing CO2 Photoreduction

TANG Liguang1, XU Huan2, XU Yangrui3, CHENG Yu3, CHU Yansong2, FENG Sheng4, LIU Haixia1, LIU Xinlin2, SONG Minshan5, LU Ziyang3,6   

  1. 1. School of Material Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, P. R. China;
    2. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, P. R. China;
    3. School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, School of Emergency Management, Key Laboratory of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, P. R. China;
    4. School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou 320400, P. R. China;
    5. School of Management, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, P. R. China;
    6. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Technology and Material of Water Treatment Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, P. R. China
  • Received:2025-05-10 Accepted:2025-06-30 Online:2025-08-01 Published:2025-07-24
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22278190), the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province, China (No. 2023), the Jiangsu Provincical Graduate Research and Practice Innovation Project, China (No. KYCX24_3946), the Project of the New Acetic Acid Catalyst Research and Development Key Laboratory of Zhenjiang, China (No. SS2024001), and the Project of the Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Technology and Material of Water Treatment, China.

Abstract: The weak adsorption capacity of active sites for CO2 and the rapid recombination of photogenerated charges are the key to limiting the photocatalytic reduction activity. How to construct a system to achieve strong adsorption of CO2 and rapid charge separation is particularly important. Based on this, ZnS/Bi2S3/CuS composite photocatalyst with double heterojunction structure was constructed by a simple in-situ hydrothermal method. The interface charge contact of the double heterojunction structure formed a built-in electric field, which effectively inhibited the recombination of electron holes, thereby promoting charge separation. Electrons were enriched on CuS, and the strong adsorption energy of Cu sites to CO2 can be used to rapidly react and improve the photocatalytic activity. Compared with the single substance, the performance of CH4 and CO was improved by up to 4 and 3.26 times. Density functional theory (DFT) and in situ infrared proved the photocatalytic reaction mechanism.

Key words: Photocatalytic CO2 reduction, Double heterojunction, Adsorption energy, Charge separation