Tailored Synthesis of CuO/2D-BiVO4 for Enhanced CO2 Photoreduction to Methanol

Herein, we report on the one-pot synthesis of CuO/2D-BiVO4 nanostructures for natural sunlight induced CO2 reduction to CH3OH. The crystal structures, morphological features, and band gap values were carefully examined using XRD, FESEM, and UV-DRS techniques. The heterogeneous catalysis experimentation revealed that CuO/2D-BiVO4 nanostructures with an optimum concentration of 10 mol% CuO decoration showcased excellent catalytic conversion of CO2 gas to CH3OH throughout 8 h. A comparison of various light sources such as ultra-violet, visible, white light, and natural sunlight is presented. Among the various light sources employed for photocatalytic activity, the maximum CH3OH production yield of 27.435 µmolg−1 h−1 was observed in the presence of natural sunlight. Tailored CuO/2D-BiVO4 nanostructures with conveniently formed heterojunctions depicted enhanced activity when compared to pristine BiVO4 nanosheets. It is anticipated that the work presented here will provide deeper insights into the ever-growing field of renewable energy generation and carbon neutral technology.