High-efficient separation of photoinduced carriers on double Z-scheme heterojunction for superior photocatalytic CO2 reduction

Abstract Developing heterojunction is one of promising approaches to acquire desired photocatalysts with high-efficient photocatalytic activity. In this work, sheet-like ternary ZnO/ZnWO4/g-C3N4 composite was synthesized via stepwise calcination treatment. The double interface electric fields built in the ZnO/ZnWO4/g-C3N4 heterojunction can promote efficient separation of photogenerated charge carriers in space. Moreover, in contrast with the individual ZnO, g-C3N4, ZnWO4 and their binary composites, this double Z-scheme heterojunction achieves more light harvesting, larger pore volume, stronger photoreduction capacity and CO2 adsorption capacity. Therefore, the sheet-like ZnO/ZnWO4/g-C3N4 heterojunction exhibits efficient conversion of the CO2 molecules into solar fuels under the light irradiation. The production yield of photocatalytic CO2 reduction over the double Z-scheme heterojunction is 13.19 μmol h−1 g−1 and the conversion rate of hydrocarbon fuel is highly up to 91.5%, which are much higher than that of other samples. This work offers a novel perspective to achieve high-efficiency heterojunction system for photoredox applications such as photocatalytic antibacterial, nitrogen fixation and degradation of pollutions.