Accelerating Charge Kinetics in Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction by Modulating the Cobalt Coordination in Heterostructures of Cadmium Sulfide/Metal–Organic Layer

Abstract Artificial photocatalytic CO₂ reduction (CO₂R) holds great promise to directly store solar energy into chemical bonds. The slow charge and mass transfer kinetics at the triphasic solid–liquid–gas interface calls for the rational design of heterogeneous photocatalysts concertedly boosting interfacial charge transfer, local CO₂ concentration, and exposure of active sites. To meet these requirements, in this study heterostructures of CdS/MOL (MOL = metal–organic layer) furnishing different redox Co sites are fabricated for CO₂R photocatalysts. It is found that the coordination environment of Co is key to photocatalytic activity. The best catalyst ensemble comprising ligand‐chelated Co²⁺ with the bipyridine electron mediator demonstrates a high CO yield rate of 1523 µmol h⁻¹ g_cat⁻¹, selectivity of 95.8% and TON of 1462.4, which are ranked among the best seen in literature. Comprehensive photochemical and electroanalytical characterizations attribute the high CO₂R performance to the improved photocarrier separation and charge kinetics originated from the proper energy band alignment and coordination chemistry. This work highlights the construction of 2D heterostructures and modulation of transition metal coordination to expedite the charge kinetics in photocatalytic CO₂ reduction.