Encapsulation of Cobalt Oxide into Metal-Organic Frameworks for an Improved Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction

The increased emission of CO₂ has negative impacts on the environment. Among the strategies, photocatalytic reduction is promising to convert the CO₂ into chemicals. In this report, CoO_x nanoparticles were loaded in the channels of MIL-101(Cr), a kind of metal-organic frameworks (MOF), to construct a novel CoO_x /MIL-101(Cr) system to facilitate CO₂ photoreduction. Under the optimal conditions, the CoO_x /MIL-101(Cr) showed a significantly enhanced performance for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction compared with bare CoO_x and MIL-101(Cr). Our findings provide a pathway for a rational design of efficient MOF systems for the photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ .