Visible light photoreduction of CO2 using heterostructured catalysts

A method of photocatalytically reducing CO2 in the presence of water comprising:

• producing a sensitized photocatalyst comprised of:
• a wide band gap semiconductor material, where the valence band of the wide band gap semiconductor material has a more positive potential than the redox potential of H2O,
• a semiconductor sensitizer loaded on a surface of the wide band gap semiconductor material, where the semiconductor sensitizer comprises a binary semiconductor, where the binary semiconductor is InP, GaAs, PbS, PbSe, ZnTe, CdS, CdSe, or CdTe, such that the binary semiconductor has a band gap such that visible light produces photoexcitation in the binary semiconductor, and where the valence band of the wide band gap semiconductor material has a more positive potential than the redox potential of H2O, and where the binary semiconductor has a band gap such that the binary semiconductor and the wide band gap semiconductor material form a heterojunction at an interface between the binary semiconductor and the wide band gap semiconductor material, where the heterojunction has a type II band alignment, and where the conduction band of the binary semiconductor has a more negative potential than the conduction band of the wide band gap semiconductor material,
• a co-catalyst loaded on the wide band gap semiconductor material, where the co-catalyst is comprised of a transition metal;
• and exposing the sensitized photocatalyst to CO2 and H2O, and exposing the sensitized photocatalyst to a visible light illumination, such that some portion of the CO2 is photocatalytically reduced and such that product molecules are produced.