Near-infrared-responsive sea-urchin-like Ag6Si2O7/Bi19Br3S27 S-scheme heterojunction for efficient CO2 photoreduction

The construction of S-scheme heterojunctions effectively facilitates the spatial separation of photogenerated charge carriers for their involvement in photoreactions. However, the inefficient utilization of solar energy in these heterostructures is often due to unfavorable band-edge positions and suboptimal charge transport dynamics, which result in low photocatalytic efficiency when considering kinetic factors. In this study, sea urchin–like BiBrS/AgSiO S-scheme heterojunctions are fabricated, which exhibit excellent CO photoreduction performance under ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared (NIR) light illumination. Experimental data and density functional theory calculations confirm the S-scheme charge transfer mechanisms, which enable the efficient separation of photogenerated carriers for CO reduction. Consequently, the optimized AgSiO/BiBrS heterostructures exhibit superior CO photoreduction activity under NIR light irradiation. This approach offers a strategy for designing advanced NIR-light-responsive photocatalysts for efficient CO photoreduction.