Black phosphorus quantum dot/g-C 3 N 4 composites for enhanced CO 2 photoreduction to CO

The development of low cost, metal free semiconductor photocatalysts for CO2 reduction to fuels and valuable chemical feedstocks is a practically imperative for reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. In this work, black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) were successfully dispersed on a graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) support via a simple electrostatic attraction approach, and the activities of BP@g-C3N4 composites were evaluated for photocatalytic CO2 reduction. The BP@g-C3N4 composites displayed improved carrier separation efficiency and higher activities for photocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO (6.54 μmol g−1 h−1 at the optimum BPQDs loading of 1 wt%) compared with pure g-C3N4 (2.65 μmol g−1 h−1). This work thus identifies a novel approach towards metal free photocatalysts for CO2 photoreduction.