Efficient Visible Light Photocatalytic CO2 Reforming of CH4

The large energy requirement of CO2 reforming of methane (CRM) has obstructed its application. Solar energy is a solution for the issue. Different from efficient photocatalytic splitting of water, photocatalysis for CRM exhibits a very low efficiency and employs only ultraviolet (UV) light. This letter reports an efficient visible-light photocatalytic CRM by combining Pt/black TiO2 catalyst with light-diffuse-reflection-surface. Under visible light illumination by filtering UV light from AM 1.5G sunlight, H-2 and CO yields reached 71 and 158 mmol/h/g(cat), with a quantum efficiency of 32.3% at 550 degrees C, and 129 and 370 mmol/h/g(cat), with a quantum efficiency of 57.8% at 650 degrees C. Those yields are 3 orders of magnitude larger than the reported values.