Abstract: A nano-Janus photocatalyst for CO2 reduction and method for fabricating the same is disclosed. The photocatalyst includes a plurality of nanoparticles, each nanoparticle having a plasmonic metal coupled to a semiconductor to form a nano-Janus heterostructure. An interface between the plasmonic metal and the semiconductor forms a Schottky junction. The plasmonic metal may be gold, and the semiconductor may be Cu2O. A method for fabricating the nano-Janus photocatalyst includes tuning a surface energy of a plurality of plasmonic metal nanoscale seeds through ligand incubation, and deposing a semiconductor on part of each seed, with the semiconductor growing on the seed through selective nucleation informed by the ligand incubation.