BiVO₄ Microplates with Oxygen Vacancies Decorated with Metallic Cu and Bi Nanoparticles for CO₂ Photoreduction

BiVO4-based composites are of great interest as photocatalysts for water oxidation, CO2 reduction, and organic pollutant degradation, but their low charge separation efficiency and poor photocatalytic activity still need to be resolved. Herein, metallic Cu and Bi nanoparticle-co-decorated BiVO4 (Cu–Bi/BiVO4) microplates were constructed via a simple solvothermal method, and their photocatalytic activity was evaluated by photocatalytic CO2 reduction with H2O vapor. The obtained results demonstrated that the Cu–Bi/BiVO4 composites exhibited high visible-light absorption ability, a narrow band gap, rich surface oxygen vacancies, efficient charge separation, and fast charge transportation. These unique characteristics enable the Cu–Bi/BiVO4 composites to perform excellent photocatalytic activity for CO2 reduction into CO/CH4 under visible-light illumination. The CO production rate of optimized Cu–Bi/BiVO4 is about 19- and 4-fold higher than those of pristine BiVO4 and Bi/BiVO4 composites, respectively. The present work demonstrated that metallic Cu and Bi nanoparticle-co-decorated BiVO4 microplates exhibited promising application in photocatalytic CO2 reduction into valuable chemical fuels.