Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Harnessing Vis–NIR broad spectrum for photocatalytic CO2 reduction over carbon quantum dots-decorated ultrathin Bi2WO6 nanosheets

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Nano Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to energy-rich hydrocarbon fuels is a promising and sustainable method of addressing global warming and the imminent energy crisis concomitantly. However, a vast majority of the existing photocatalysts are only capable of harnessing ultraviolet (UV) or/and visible light (Vis), whereas the near-infrared (NIR) region still remains unexplored. In this study, carbon quantum dots (CQDs)-decorated ultrathin Bi2WO6 nanosheets (UBW) were demonstrated to be an efficient photocatalyst for CO2 photoreduction over the Vis–NIR broad spectrum. It is noteworthy that the synthesis procedure of the CQDs/UBW hybrid nanocomposites was highly facile, involving a one-pot hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-assisted hydrothermal process. Under visible light irradiation, the optimized 1CQDs/UBW (1 wt.% CQD content) exhibited a remarkable 9.5-fold and 3.1-fold enhancement of CH4 production over pristine Bi2WO6 nanoplatelets (PBW) and bare UBW, respectively. More importantly, the photocatalytic responsiveness of CQDs/UBW was successfully extended to the NIR region, which was achieved without involving any rare earth or noble metals. The realization of NIR-driven CO2 reduction could be attributed to the synergistic effects of (i) the ultrathin nanostructures and highly exposed {001} active facets of UBW, (ii) the excellent spectral coupling of UBW and CQDs, where UBW could be excited by the up-converted photoluminescence of CQDs, and (iii) the electron-withdrawing nature of the CQDs to trap the photogenerated electrons and retard the recombination of charge carriers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. White, J. L.; Baruch, M. F.; Pander, J. E., III; Hu, Y.; Fortmeyer, I. C.; Park, J. E.; Zhang, T.; Liao, K.; Gu, J.; Yan, Y. et al. Light-driven heterogeneous reduction of carbon dioxide: Photocatalysts and photoelectrodes. Chem. Rev. 2015, 115, 12888–12935.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Tu, W. G.; Zhou, Y.; Zou, Z. G. Photocatalytic conversion of CO2 into renewable hydrocarbon fuels: State-of-the-art accomplishment, challenges, and prospects. Adv. Mater. 2014, 26, 4607–4626.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Li, K.; Peng, B. S.; Peng, T. Y. Recent advances in heterogeneous photocatalytic CO2 conversion to solar fuels. ACS Catal. 2016, 6, 7485–7527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Inoue, T.; Fujishima, A.; Konishi, S.; Honda, K. Photoelectrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide in aqueous suspensions of semiconductor powders. Nature 1979, 277, 637–638.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wang, W. J.; Li, Y. C.; Kang, Z. W.; Wang, F.; Yu, J. C. A NIR-driven photocatalyst based on α-NaYF4:Yb, Tm@TiO2 core–shell structure supported on reduced graphene oxide. Appl. Catal. B 2016, 182, 184–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Tou, M. J.; Mei, Y. Y.; Bai, S.; Luo, Z. G.; Zhang, Y.; Li, Z. Q. Depositing CdS nanoclusters on carbon-modified NaYF4:Yb,Tm upconversion nanocrystals for NIR-light enhanced photocatalysis. Nanoscale 2016, 8, 553–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Tang, Y. N.; Di, W. H.; Zhai, X. S.; Yang, R. Y.; Qin, W. P. NIR-responsive photocatalytic activity and mechanism of NaYF4:Yb,Tm@TiO2 core−shell nanoparticles. ACS Catal. 2013, 3, 405–412.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Zheng, Z. K.; Tachikawa, T.; Majima, T. Single-particle study of Pt-modified Au nanorods for plasmon-enhanced hydrogen generation in visible to near-infrared region. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 6870–6873.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Chen, C. K.; Chen, H. M.; Chen, C.-J.; Liu, R.-S. Plasmonenhanced near-infrared-active materials in photoelectrochemical water splitting. Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 7917–7919.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Li, H. T.; Liu, R. H.; Liu, Y.; Huang, H.; Yu, H.; Ming, H.; Lian, S. Y.; Lee, S.-T.; Kang, Z. H. Carbon quantum dots/Cu2O composites with protruding nanostructures and their highly efficient (near) infrared photocatalytic behavior. J. Mater. Chem. 2012, 22, 17470–17475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Lim, S. Y.; Shen, W.; Gao, Z. Q. Carbon quantum dots and their applications. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2015, 44, 362–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Li, H. T.; Kang, Z. H.; Liu, Y.; Lee, S. T. Carbon nanodots: Synthesis, properties and applications. J. Mater. Chem. 2012, 22, 24230–24253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Yu, H. J.; Shi, R.; Zhao, Y. F.; Waterhouse, G. I. N.; Wu, L.-Z.; Tung, C.-H.; Zhang T. R. Smart utilization of carbon dots in semiconductor photocatalysis. Adv. Mater. 2016, 28, 9454–9477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Liu, Q.; Chen, T. X.; Guo, Y. R.; Zhang, Z. G.; Fang, X. M. Environmental ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets coupled with carbon nanodots as 2D/0D composites for efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution. Appl. Catal. B 2016, 193, 248–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Hou, J. G.; Cheng, H. J.; Yang, C.; Takeda, O.; Zhu, H. M. Hierarchical carbon quantum dots/hydrogenated-γ-TaON heterojunctions for broad spectrum photocatalytic performance. Nano Energy 2015, 18, 143–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Ge, L.; Han, C. C.; Liu, J. Novel visible light-induced g-C3N4/Bi2WO6 composite photocatalysts for efficient degradation of methyl orange. Appl. Catal. B 2011, 108–109, 100–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Zhang, N.; Ciriminna, R.; Pagliaro, M.; Xu, Y.-J. Nanochemistry-derived Bi2WO6 nanostructures: Towards production of sustainable chemicals and fuels induced by visible light. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2014, 43, 5276–5287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Zhou, Y.; Tian, Z. P.; Zhao, Z. Y.; Liu, Q.; Kou, J. H.; Chen, X. Y.; Gao, J.; Yan, S. C.; Zou, Z. G. High-yield synthesis of ultrathin and uniform Bi2WO6 square nanoplates benefitting from photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into renewable hydrocarbon fuel under visible light. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2011, 3, 3594–3601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Zhang, D.; Li, J.; Wang, Q. G.; Wu, Q. S. High {001} facets dominated BiOBr lamellas: Facile hydrolysis preparation and selective visible-light photocatalytic activity. J. Mater. Chem. A 2013, 1, 8622–8629.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Zhang, M.; Sun, R. Z.; Li, Y. J.; Shi, Q. M.; Xie, L. H.; Chen, J. S.; Xu, X. H.; Shi, H. X.; Zhao, W. R. High H2 evolution from quantum Cu(II) nanodot-doped two-dimensional ultrathin TiO2 nanosheets with dominant exposed {001} facets for reforming glycerol with multiple electron transport pathways. J. Phys. Chem. C 2016, 120, 10746–10756.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Kong, X. Y.; Lee, W. P. C.; Ong, W.-J.; Chai, S.-P.; Mohamed, A. R. Oxygen-deficient BiOBr as a highly stable photocatalyst for efficient CO2 reduction into renewable carbon-neutral fuels. ChemCatChem 2016, 8, 3074–3081.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Kong, X. Y.; Choo, Y. Y.; Chai, S.-P.; Soh, A. K.; Mohamed, A. R. Oxygen vacancy induced Bi2WO6 for the realization of photocatalytic CO2 reduction over the full solar spectrum: From the UV to the NIR region. Chem. Commun. 2016, 52, 14242–14245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Ong, W.-J.; Tan, L.-L.; Chai, S.-P.; Yong, S.-T.; Mohamed, A. R. Surface charge modification via protonation of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) for electrostatic self-assembly construction of 2D/2D reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/g-C3N4 nanostructures toward enhanced photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to methane. Nano Energy 2015, 13, 757–770.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Tan, L.-L.; Ong, W.-J.; Chai, S.-P.; Goh, B. T.; Mohamed, A. R. Visible-light-active oxygen-rich TiO2 decorated 2D graphene oxide with enhanced photocatalytic activity toward carbon dioxide reduction. Appl. Catal. B 2015, 179, 160–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Ong, W.-J.; Tan, L.-L.; Chai, S.-P.; Yong, S.-T.; Mohamed, A. R. Self-assembly of nitrogen-doped TiO2 with exposed {001} facets on a graphene scaffold as photo-active hybrid nanostructures for reduction of carbon dioxide to methane. Nano Res. 2014, 7, 1528–1547.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Zhang, G.; Hu, Z. Y.; Sun, M.; Liu, Y.; Liu, L. M.; Liu, H. J.; Huang, C. P.; Qu, J. H.; Li, J. H. Formation of Bi2WO6 bipyramids with vacancy pairs for enhanced solar-driven photoactivity. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2015, 25, 3726–3734.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Di, J.; Xia, J. X.; Ge, Y. P.; Li, H. P.; Ji, H. Y.; Xu, H.; Zhang, Q.; Li, H. M.; Li, M. N. Novel visible-light-driven CQDs/Bi2WO6 hybrid materials with enhanced photocatalytic activity toward organic pollutants degradation and mechanism insight. Appl. Catal. B 2015, 168–169, 51–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Sun, Z. H.; Guo, J. J.; Zhu, S. M.; Mao, L.; Ma, J.; Zhang, D. A high-performance Bi2WO6–graphene photocatalyst for visible light-induced H2 and O2 generation. Nanoscale 2014, 6, 2186–2193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Di, J.; Xia, J. X.; Ji, M. X.; Wang, B.; Yin, S.; Zhang, Q.; Chen, Z. G.; Li, H. M. Carbon quantum dots modified BiOCl ultrathin nanosheets with enhanced molecular oxygen activation ability for broad spectrum photocatalytic properties and mechanism insight. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2015, 7, 20111–20123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Liu, C. M.; Liu, J. W.; Zhang, G. Y.; Zhang, J. B.; Wu, Q. S.; Xu, Y. Y.; Sun, Y.-Q. Facile room-temperature precipitation strategy for Ag2O/Bi2WO6 heterojunction with high simulated sunlight photocatalytic performance via bi-directed electron migration mechanism. RSC Adv. 2015, 5, 32333–32342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Pan, D. Y.; Zhang, J. C.; Li, Z.; Wu, C.; Yan, X. M.; Wu, M. H. Observation of pH-, solvent-, spin-, and excitationdependent blue photoluminescence from carbon nanoparticles. Chem. Commun. 2010, 46, 3681–3683.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Xia, X. Y.; Deng, N.; Cui, G. W.; Xie, J. F.; Shi, X. F.; Zhao, Y. Q.; Wang, Q.; Wang, W.; Tang, B. NIR light induced H2 evolution by a metal-free photocatalyst. Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 10899–10902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Ortega-Liebana, M. C.; Hueso, J. L.; Larrea, A.; Sebastian, V.; Santamaria, J. Feroxyhyte nanoflakes coupled to up-converting carbon nanodots: A highly active, magnetically recoverable, Fenton-like photocatalyst in the visible-NIR range. Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 16625–166288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Li, H. P.; Liu, J. Y.; Liang, X. F.; Hou, W. G.; Tao, X. T. Enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity of bismuth oxybromide lamellas with decreasing lamella thicknesses. J. Mater. Chem. A 2014, 2, 8926–8932.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The work was funded by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) under NanoMITe Long-term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS) (No. 203/PJKIMIA/6720009).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Multidisciplinary Platform of Advanced Engineering, Chemical Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering, Monash University, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 47500, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia

    Xin Ying Kong, Wen Liang Tan, Boon-Junn Ng & Siang-Piao Chai

  2. Low Carbon Economy (LCE) Group, School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Seri Ampangan, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

    Abdul Rahman Mohamed

Authors
  1. Xin Ying Kong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wen Liang Tan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Boon-Junn Ng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Siang-Piao Chai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Abdul Rahman Mohamed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Siang-Piao Chai.

Electronic supplementary material

12274_2017_1435_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Harnessing Vis–NIR broad spectrum for photocatalytic CO2 reduction over carbon quantum dots-decorated ultrathin Bi2WO6 nanosheets

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kong, X.Y., Tan, W.L., Ng, BJ. et al. Harnessing Vis–NIR broad spectrum for photocatalytic CO2 reduction over carbon quantum dots-decorated ultrathin Bi2WO6 nanosheets. Nano Res. 10, 1720–1731 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1435-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1435-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation