Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
5 years ago

Enhanced carbon dioxide conversion to formate on a multi-functional synergistic photoelectrocatalytic interface

Enhanced carbon dioxide conversion to formate on a multi-functional synergistic photoelectrocatalytic interface
As one of the main greenhouse gases, the conversion of CO2 into useful chemicals is of great significance to global warming, climate change and energy supply. Herein, a multi-functional synergistic photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) interface is employed to realize enhanced PEC CO2 reduction by using intrinsic Au doped TiO2 as the light harvester, nanotube photonic crystal (NTPC) as optical channels and Cu nanoparticles (NPs) as CO2 electrocatalyst. Formic acid is produced as the main product with a selectivity of 98% and a Faraday efficiency of 82.6% under simulated sunlight illumination and an applied potential of −1.0V vs. Ag/AgCl. Its yield ratio is up to 1019.3μmolL−1 cm−2 after an 8h reduction, nearly 6.3 times higher than that on the traditional TiO2 NTs. Such enhanced PEC CO2 conversion performance is due to a synergistic catalytic effect on this multi-functional interface. The extraordinary localized surface plasmon resonance sensitized by the intrinsic Au NPs expands the light absorption region to the visible region. The photonic crystal layer structure raises the multi-reflection of incident light. The electrocatalyst of Cu NPs synergistically promotes PEC activity toward CO2 reduction. The calculated enhancement factors of photonic crystal layer, intrinsic Au NPs, and Cu NPs are 813%, 91%, and 2028%, respectively. This work provides an effective approach for photocathode design to promote the efficiency of PEC CO2 conversion.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0926337317306690

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.