Background

Solar-driven photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to fuels and chemicals with added value has attracted intense attention.

Methods

Here, the Sm³⁺/Tm³⁺ co-doped BiVO₄ micro-squares were synthesized by hydrothermal method. The prepared samples were characterized by some physicochemical methods such as XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM, XPS, UV–Vis DRS, EPR, N₂ physisorption -desorption and electrochemical analysis. The CO₂ reduction ability of the catalysts with different rare earth content was evaluated under xenon lamp irradiation.

Significant findings

We found that BiVO₄ photocatalyst co-doped with 10%Sm and 10%Tm (mole percent) showed the remarkable photocatalytic activity for CO and CH₄ production. The CO production rate over 10%Sm/10%Tm/BiVO₄ was around 5 times higher than that of pure BiVO₄ and single rare earth doped BiVO₄. The enhanced activity can be attributed that the Sm³⁺/Tm³⁺ co-doping reduced the recombination rate of photogenerated electrons and holes, provides additional light absorption and more active sites for CO₂ reduction.

中文翻译：

---

Sm3+/Tm3+共掺杂BiVO4微方块的制备、表征及其光催化CO2还原性能

背景

太阳能驱动的将 CO ₂光催化还原为具有附加值的燃料和化学品引起了广泛关注。

方法

在此，Sm ³⁺ /Tm ³⁺共掺杂BiVO ₄微方块是通过水热法合成的。通过XRD、FT-IR、SEM、TEM、XPS、UV-Vis DRS、EPR、N 2 物理吸附-脱附和电化学分析等物理化学方法对制备的样品进行了_表征。在氙灯照射下评价了不同稀土含量催化剂的CO _{2还原能力。}

重要发现

我们发现共掺杂10%Sm和10%Tm（摩尔百分比）的BiVO _{4光催化剂对CO和CH 4}的产生表现出显着的光催化活性。_{超过10%Sm/10%Tm/BiVO 4}的CO生产率比纯BiVO ₄和单一稀土掺杂的BiVO ₄高约5倍。增强的活性可归因于Sm ³⁺ /Tm ³⁺共掺杂降低了光生电子和空穴的复合率，为CO ₂还原提供了额外的光吸收和更多的活性位点。