Highly efficient nanostructured metal-decorated hybrid semiconductors for solar conversion of CO₂ with almost complete CO selectivity

Photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ into solar fuels is regarded as a promising method to address global warming and energy crisis problems. Although heterostructured hybrid metal oxide catalysts have been used for CO₂ reduction, selective control for CO production-only remains the subject of debate. In this paper, we report an absolute selectivity for CO production-only with enhanced photocatalytic ability using Ag-decorated reduced titanium oxide/tungsten hybrid nanoparticles (blue TiO₂/WO₃–Ag HNPs) at 1166.72 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ with an apparent quantum yield of 34.8%. The construction of a Z-scheme between blue TiO₂ and WO₃ domains with an excellent band alignment provided remarkably improved separation of photoinduced charges. Importantly, the presence of novel Ag not only produces the highest selectivity up to 100% CO production-only, but also increases the photocatalytic electron reaction rate (2333.44 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹).