CdS/WO₃ S-scheme heterojunction with improved photocatalytic CO₂ reduction activity

The anthropogenic emission of CO₂ in the environment affected our atmosphere, which caused a rapid change in the climate. It needs to reduce the excess CO₂ from the environment to maintain sustainability and keep it green. In this work, we have fabricated a CdS decorated WO₃ nanocomposite, improving the reduction ability of CO₂ into CO and CH₄ selectively in visible light. The construction of the heterojunction improved the stability of CdS with WO₃. It synergistically resulted in ~7.7 times the higher yield of CO and 2.3 times the higher yield of CH₄ than CdS using 20 wt% CdS decorated WO₃ nanocomposite in a mixture of N,N-dimethylformamide, triethylamine, and water in a 3:1:1 ratio. The 20 wt% CdS on WO₃ nanocomposite has proven an effective and selective photocatalyst with the relative yield of methanol up to four cycles. The nanocomposite photocatalysts were analyzed using instrumental techniques, such as XRD, XPS, HR-TEM, FTIR, TGA-DTA, UV-vis, PL spectroscopy, and PEC analysis.