Electrostatic Self-Assembly of Nanosized Carbon Nitride Nanosheet onto a Zirconium Metal-Organic Framework for Enhanced Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction

UiO-66, a zirconium based metal-organic framework, is incorporated with nanosized carbon nitride nanosheets via a facile electrostatic self-assembly method. This hybrid structure exhibits a large surface area and strong CO2 capture ability due to the introduction of UiO-66. We demonstrate that electrons from the photoexcited carbon nitride nanosheet can transfer to UiO-66, which can substantially suppress electron-hole pair recombination in the carbon nitride nanosheet, as well as supply long-lived electrons for the reduction of CO2 molecules that are adsorbed in UiO-66. As a result, the UiO-66/carbon nitride nanosheet heterogeneous photocatalyst exhibits a much higher photocatalytic activity for the CO2 conversion than that of bare carbon nitride nanosheets. We believe this self-assembly method can be extended to other carbon nitride nanosheet loaded materials.