Enhancing photocatalytic CO₂ reduction performance of g-C₃N₄-based catalysts with non-noble plasmonic nanoparticles

In CO₂ photocatalytic conversion, the development of efficient, stable, and inexpensive catalysts is a hot research topic. Herein, to improve the inherent shortcomings of pristine g-C₃N₄ with high recombination rate and poor photocatalytic activity, non-noble plasmonic titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles are covered by g-C₃N₄ nanosheets. The porous morphology of g-C₃N₄ nanosheets greatly promotes the adsorption of CO₂ and remarkably increases the amount of surface active sites, thus laying a solid foundation for efficient CO₂ capture and conversion. Meanwhile, the decoration of TiN nanoparticles with localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effects significantly broaden the spectral response range and strengthen the transfer of photogenerated charge carriers. The size of TiN nanoparticles is closely related to the catalytic performance. The optimized photocatalyst shows an enhanced CO yield of 210.5 μmol/g/h, which is 6.05 times and 2.77 times higher than those of the bulk and porous g-C₃N₄, and exhibits good stability during the reaction.