The production of renewable fossil fuels such as CH
4 and CO by photocatalytic CO
2 reduction has attracted more and more
attention. However, single photocatalyst is less efficient for photocatalytic
reduction of CO
2 due to the fast recombination of photogenerated
electron pairs. Herein, we successfully prepare CdS-Ag
2S composite
by assembling the Ag
2S QDs cocatalyst on the surface of CdS
nanosheet-assembled flower through oil-bath solvothermal method. This composite
is prepared through a simple self-assembly strategy using cadmium
chloride, ammonia and thiourea as precursors of the CdS nanosheet-assembled
flower and silver nitrate and 3-mercaptopropionic acid as the precursors of Ag
2S
QDs. The average diameter of Ag
2S QDs is apparently 6.0 nm. The
light absorption edge of the composite is at around 560 nm, with the
corresponding band gap at 2.14 eV.
The
CdS-Ag
2S QDs composite with 5 wt% Ag
2S QDs loaded achieves
CO evolution rate of 16.6 μmol·g
-1·h
-1 without
noble-metal cocatalysts. This strengthened photocatalytic performance and
photocatalytic stability were attributed to the energy band broadening of Ag
2S
QDs caused by quantum size effect and the large specific surface area due to
the assembled flower. The mechanism underlying the enhanced photocatalytic CO
2 reduction activity is further proposed. This study demonstrates that
semiconductor-based quantum dots are strong candidates for excellent
cocatalysts in photocatalysis.