Indium Doped Gan Porous Micro-Rods Enhanced CO₂ Reduction Driving By Solar Light

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction plays an important role in solar energy storage and carbon balance. GaN as an III-V semiconductor material has received extensive attention in the field of photocatalysis. In this study, the porous indium-doped GaN (In/GaN) micro-rods are synthesized successfully by a facile hydrothermal method and subsequent controlled atmosphere heat treatment. Photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance of In/GaN is higher than that of pure GaN due to the In doping improves the light absorption efficiency. The primary products are CO and CH4. Among the samples, 3%-In/GaN exhibits the highest catalytic activity as well as stability and reusability. The yield rates of CO and CH4 can be reached 50.2 and 14.6 mu mol g(-1) h(-1), respectively. Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the bandgap is narrowed and the adsorption energy of CO2 molecules is improved by In doping. Moreover, the N-vacancy detected by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) increases with the In doping, resulting in an increase in the number of unpaired electrons, which is conducive to carrier transport. This work provides a new study In/GaN prepared by simple method for the light-driven photocatalytic conversion of CO2 to high-value-added products.