Surface chemical grafting of two-dimensional MoSxSey for the adsorption and activation of CO2 in visible-light photoreduction

The adsorption and activation of CO 2 are two essential steps during the photocatalytic reduction of CO 2 . However, CO 2 molecules, being non-polar and linear, are thermodynamically too stable to be activated. In this work, we graft aromatic amine molecules to the surface of two-dimensional MoS x Se y to improve its photocatalytic efficiency. Thus, the photongenerated electrons would swiftly transfer from MoS x Se y to the grafted molecules under the excitation of the visible light, which conducts strong interaction with CO 2 to promote its adsorption. In addition, MoS x Se y with grafted aromatic amine molecules exhibited strong reduction ability to trigger the activation of adsorbed CO 2 , and to facilitate the consequent deoxidization and hydrogenation, significantly improving the final production. The proposed grafting of aromatic amine molecules could be a promising strategy for effectively activating CO 2 photoreduction.