Cobalt Phosphide Cocatalysts Coated with Porous N‐doped Carbon Layers for Photocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction
Pingping Niu, Zhiming Pan, Sibo Wang, Xinchen Wang
Abstract
Abstract Cobalt phosphide (CoP) has been demonstrated as a cocatalyst for visible‐light‐sensitized CO 2 reduction, but just with moderate selectivity, due to the competitive H 2 generation reaction. Herein, the porous N‐doped carbon (NC) layer is in situ coated on the surface of CoP nanoparticles to fabricate the core‐shell CoP@NC composite cocatalyst. Benefiting from the outstanding electric conductivity and high surface area of the NC shell, the CoP@NC hybrid attains strengthened capabilities for charge separation/transfer and CO 2 capture/activation. Besides, the direct contact of CoP with H 2 O is prevented by the porous NC shell with high hydrophobicity. Consequently, the photosensitized CO 2 ‐to‐CO conversion efficiency and selectivity of CoP@NC hybrid are enhanced by 2.7 and 2.4 times, respectively, compared to bare CoP.