Journal
NATURE CATALYSIS
Volume 2, Issue 10, Pages 889-898Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41929-019-0338-z
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Funding
- NSFC [21677080]
- Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation
- Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure
- Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change
- Ministry of Research Innovation and Science Low Carbon Innovation Fund
- Ontario Centre of Excellence Solutions 2030 Challenge Fund
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
- Imperial Oil
- University of Toronto Connaught Innovation Fund
- Connaught Global Challenge Fund
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- China Scholarship Council
- Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [51902287]
- Best in Science
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Cuprous oxide (Cu2O), an earth-abundant, low-cost metal-oxide semiconductor, has received enormous attention for its CO2 reduction ability in aqueous media by photochemical, photoelectrochemical and electrochemical methods. An unresolved problem with all of these approaches, however, is the instability of the Cu2O caused by its tendency to undergo an irreversible redox disproportionation reaction. Here, we report a way to circumvent this troublesome behaviour of Cu2O by driving the CO2 reduction in the gas-phase via heterogeneous photocatalytic hydrogenation. To this end, Cu2O nanocubes with surfaces comprising mixed oxidation-state copper Cu(O,I,II) sites, oxygen vacancies [O] and hydroxyl OH groups were synthesized. These surfaces enable heterolysis of H-2 and adsorption of CO2 under mild conditions; they facilitate the reverse water-gas shift reaction, while rendering the redox disproportionation reaction reversible. This synergism provides Cu2O nanocubes with high photocatalytic activity and stability.
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