Construction of ZnIn 2 S 4 –In 2 O 3 hierarchical tubular heterostructures for efficient CO 2 photoreduction

Abstract

We demonstrate the rational design and construction of sandwich-like ZnIn2S4-In2O3 hierarchical tubular heterostructures by growing ZnIn2S4 nanosheets on both inner and outer surfaces of In2O3 microtubes as photocatalysts for efficient CO2 photoreduction. The unique design integrates In2O3 and ZnIn2S4 into hierar-chical one-dimensional (1D) open architectures with dou-ble-heterojunction shells and ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) nanosheet subunits. This design accelerates the sep-aration and transfer of photogenerated charges, offers large surface area for CO2 adsorption, and exposes abun-dant active sites for surface catalysis. Benefitting from the structural and compositional merits, the optimized ZnIn2S4-In2O3 photocatalyst exhibits outstanding perfor-mance for reductive CO2 deoxygenation with considerable CO generation rate (3075 μmol h-1 g-1) and high stability.