3D Flower-like Zinc doping Engineered Bismuth Vanadium Oxide Architecture for Boosted Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction to CH3OH

Development of highly-efficient, selective, and durable CO2 photocatalytic reduction systems for high value-added carbon-containing chemicals or fuels is the key for tackling global warming and ameliorating energy shortage, but still remains challenging. Herein, a novel kind of 3D flower-like Zn-doping engineered BiVO4 architecture with boosted photocatalytic activity and stability was developed through a simple solvothermal method for efficient photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CH3OH under visible-light irradiation. As expected, the as-synthesized Zn-doped BiVO4 photocatalyst exhibited an ideal CO2 adsorption capacity of 1.05 cm3·g−1, and a large surface area of 45.58 m2·g−1. Benefiting from the synergistic effects of abundant reaction-active sites from 3D flower-like micro-/nano- architecture and well-designed Zn-doping induced electronic structure reconstruction, the as-synthesized Zn-BiVO4 photocatalyst unveiled outstanding photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance (maximum CH3OH yield up to 583.35 μmol·g−1·h−1), and superior photocatalytic stability (no obvious CH3OH yield decay during three consecutive cycles). The findings of this work are expected to offer a new perspective for the design, modification and application of highly-efficient and robust photocatalysts.