Synthesis of BiOI flowerlike hierarchical structures toward photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CH4

•Room temperature synthesis of BiOI flowerlike hierarchical structures.•BiOI can be used for photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into hydrocarbon fuels under sunlight.•The photocatalytic activity of BiOI is higher than that of P25 TiO2.

BiOI flowerlike hierarchical structure was synthesized by the direct hydrolysis method – hydrolysis at room temperature in the presence of polyvinyl pyrrolidone. As-synthesized BiOI was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. It is a facile way to obtain BiOI flowerlike hierarchical structure photocatalyst for photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into hydrocarbon fuels under simulated sunlight irradiation without cocatalyst. And the photocatalytic activity of as-synthesized BiOI is higher than that of P25 TiO2 and bulk BiOI.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideBiOI can be used for photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into hydrocarbon fuels under sunlight.