TY - JOUR
T1 - Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methanol by Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions
AU - Cheng, S. P.
AU - Wei, L. W.
AU - Wang, H. Paul
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - The conversion of CO2 to low-carbon fuels using solar energy is considered an economically attractive and environmentally friendly route. The development of novel catalysts and the use of solar energy via photocatalysis are key to achieving the goal of chemically reducing CO2 under mild conditions. TiO2 is not very effective for the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to low-carbon chemicals such as methanol (CH3 OH). Thus, in this work, novel Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions that can effectively separate photogenerated electrons and holes were prepared for photocatalytic CO2-to-CH3 OH. More visible light-active Cu2 O in the Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions favors the formation of methanol under visible light irradiation. On the other hand, under UV-Vis irradiation for 6 h, the CH3 OH yielded from the photocatalytic CO2-to-CH3 OH by the Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions is 21.0–70.6 µmol/g-catalyst. In contrast, the yield of CH3 OH decreases with an increase in the Cu2 O fraction in the Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions. It seems that excess Cu2 O in Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions may lead to less UV light exposure for the photocatalysts, and may decrease the conversion efficiency of CO2 to CH3 OH.
AB - The conversion of CO2 to low-carbon fuels using solar energy is considered an economically attractive and environmentally friendly route. The development of novel catalysts and the use of solar energy via photocatalysis are key to achieving the goal of chemically reducing CO2 under mild conditions. TiO2 is not very effective for the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to low-carbon chemicals such as methanol (CH3 OH). Thus, in this work, novel Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions that can effectively separate photogenerated electrons and holes were prepared for photocatalytic CO2-to-CH3 OH. More visible light-active Cu2 O in the Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions favors the formation of methanol under visible light irradiation. On the other hand, under UV-Vis irradiation for 6 h, the CH3 OH yielded from the photocatalytic CO2-to-CH3 OH by the Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions is 21.0–70.6 µmol/g-catalyst. In contrast, the yield of CH3 OH decreases with an increase in the Cu2 O fraction in the Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions. It seems that excess Cu2 O in Cu2 O/TiO2 heterojunctions may lead to less UV light exposure for the photocatalysts, and may decrease the conversion efficiency of CO2 to CH3 OH.
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U2 - 10.3390/su14010374
DO - 10.3390/su14010374
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122035116
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 14
JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)
JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)
IS - 1
M1 - 374
ER -