Au Cluster–Nanoparticle Dual Coupling for Photocatalytic CO2 Conversion

CO2-selective photoreduction to value-added products is ideal, but its practical application suffers from weak photogenerated carrier separation and insufficient multielectron transport. Herein, we constructed the tricomponent AuNPs@SnO2–AuNCs hybrid by decorating Au nanoclusters (AuNCs) on the Au nanoparticle (AuNPs)@SnO2 core–shell structure. AuNC–NP dual coupling endowed AuNPs@SnO2–AuNCs with an excellent CO yield of 64.8 μmol g–1 h–1 during CO2 photoreduction, which was higher than the role of separate application of AuNCs (25.3 μmol g–1 h–1) and AuNPs (16.0 μmol g–1 h–1). It was mainly attributed that the coaction of AuNPs and AuNCs not only enhanced the visible light absorption capacity but also improved the photogenerated carrier separation/migration. As a result, the electron-rich AuNCs induced from plasmonic AuNPs and photoexcited SnO2 promoted the photocatalytic CO2-to-CO performance. This work provides a new perspective to design multicomponent photocatalysts for highly efficient CO2 conversion.