A synthetic process was exploited to fabricate patchy CuO evenly planted on cubic NaTaO3 for photocatalytically reducing CO2 in isopropanol. The nano patches of CuO with about 15 nm in size were uniformly distributed on the surface of NaTaO3 via a phase-transfer protocol and solvothermal synthesis. The crystal phase, morphology, composition, optical absorption and charge separation of as-prepared CuO-NaTaO3 were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX, XPS, UV-Vis and PL. The results of photocatalytic reduction of CO2 confirmed that the CuO patched NaTaO3 possessed better ability to separate charge carriers and selectively reduce CO2 to methanol than CuO directly loaded NaTaO3 using the traditional liquid phase reduction procedure after comparing the methanol yields. Furthermore, 5 wt% CuO patched NaTaO3 led to the highest methanol yield of 1302.22 mu mol g(-1) h(-1). A redox mechanism was proposed and illustrated in a schematic diagram. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.