Abstract
The enduring problem of CO(2) emissions and their consequent influence on the earth's atmosphere has captured the attention of researchers. Photocatalytic CO(2) reduction holds great significance; however, it is constrained by the effect of carrier recombination. Simultaneously, the structural modification of heterojunction catalysts has emerged as a promising approach to boost the photocatalytic performance. Herein, Zn(2)GeO(4)@CeO(2) core@shell nanorods were prepared by a simple self-assembly method for photocatalytic CO(2) reduction. The thickness of the CeO(2) shell can be regulated rapidly and conveniently. The photocatalytic results indicate that the structure regulation could affect the photocatalytic performance by controlling the amount of active sites and the shielding effect. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Mott-Schottky analyses reveal that Zn(2)GeO(4) and CeO(2) formed Type-I heterojunctions, which prolonged the lifetime of the photogenerated carriers. The CO(2) adsorption and activation capacities of CeO(2) also exert a beneficial influence on the progress of CO(2) photoreduction, thus enabling efficient photocatalytic CO(2) reduction. Moreover, the in situ FT-IR spectra show that Zn(2)GeO(4)@CeO(2) suppresses the formation of byproduct intermediates and shows higher CO selectivity. The best sample of Zn(2)GeO(4)@0.07CeO(2) can exhibit a CO yield of as high as 1190.9 μmol g(-1) h(-1).