CdO decorated CdS nanorod for enhanced photocatalytic reduction of CO(2) to CO

Solar-driven CO(2) reduction into fuels and sustainable energy has attracted increasing attention around the world. However, the photoreduction efficiency remains low due to the low efficiency of separation of electron–hole pairs and high thermal stability of CO(2). In this work, we prepared a CdO decorated CdS nanorod for visible light driven CO(2) reduction. The introduction of CdO facilitates the photoinduced charge carrier separation and transfer and acts as an active site for adsorption and activation of CO(2) molecules. Compared with pristine CdS, CdO/CdS exhibits a nearly 5-fold higher CO generation rate (1.26 mmol g(−1) h(−1)). In situ FT-IR experiments indicated that CO(2) reduction on CdO/CdS may follow a COOH* pathway. This study reports the pivotal effect of CdO on photogenerated carrier transfer in photocatalysis and on CO(2) adsorption, which provides a facile way to enhance photocatalytic efficiency.