Cryo-induced closely bonded heterostructure for effective CO2 conversion: The case of ultrathin BP nanosheets/g-C3N4

Abstract Black phosphorus (BP), an interesting and multi-functional non-metal material, has attracted widespread attention. In this work, 2D BP/2D g-C3N4 heterostructure had been fabricated at extremely low temperature, which was used to reduce CO2 for the first time. With introduction of 2D BP, the separation of photogenerated holes and electrons was extremely boosted, and composites showed excellent photocatalytic performance (CO2 to CO). Meanwhile, the composite (15% FPCN) could keep high selectivity for CO generation and CO generation rate can be up to 187.7 μmol g−1 h−1. The formation process of the unique heterostructure and the key factor affecting the photocatalytic performance were also discussed. This work provides a new approach for designing metal free photocatalyst, which is used for CO2 reduction.