Adsorption-enhanced nitrogen-doped mesoporous CeO2 as an efficient visible-light-driven catalyst for CO2 photoreduction

Direct converting of CO 2 to valuable fuels via solar-powered photoreduction is a promising “green chemistry” route. The key issue for this approach is the exploitation of low-cost and high-efficiency photocatalysts. Here, a novel nanoflakelet-constructed nitrogen-doped CeO 2 with relatively ordered mesostructure (NMCe) is prepared through a facile and cheap urea-assisted template method. In comparison with nanocasted ordered mesoporous CeO 2 (OMCe) with the similar textural properties, the NMCe shows improved CO 2 adsorption ability and has lowered band gap energy, higher surface Ce 3+ concentration and more surface oxygen vacancies. Owing to these characteristics, the NMCe exhibits considerably enhanced photocatalytic performance for visible-light-driven reduction of CO 2 , where the yields of CO and CH 4 are 2.5-fold higher than those on OMCe.