Journal
NANO-MICRO LETTERS
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1007/s40820-019-0354-1
Keywords
CO2 reduction; Photoelectrocatalysis; p-n heterojunction; Cerium oxide; Copper oxide
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [21802089]
- Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province [ZR2019BB015, ZR2017MB018]
- Science and Technology Plan of Shandong Province Colleges and Universities [J14LC16]
- Shandong Province Double Hundred Talents Program for Foreign Experts
- Energy Education Trust of New Zealand
- Dodd Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies
- MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
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Photoelectrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to fuels has great potential for reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions and also lessening our dependence on fossil fuel energy. Herein, we report the successful development of a novel photoelectrocatalytic catalyst for the selective reduction of CO2 to methanol, comprising a copper catalyst modified with flower-like cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs) (a n-type semiconductor) and copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) (a p-type semiconductor). At an applied potential of - 1.0 V (vs SCE) under visible light irradiation, the CeO2 NPs/CuO NPs/Cu catalyst yielded methanol at a rate of 3.44 mu mol cm(-2) h(-1), which was approximately five times higher than that of a CuO NPs/Cu catalyst (0.67 mu mol cm(-2) h(-1)). The carrier concentration increased by similar to 10(8) times when the flower-like CeO2 NPs were deposited on the CuO NPs/Cu catalyst, due to synergistic transfer of photoexcited electrons from the conduction band of CuO to that of CeO2, which enhanced both photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic CO2 reduction on the CeO2 NPs. The facile migration of photoexcited electrons and holes across the p-n heterojunction that formed between the CeO2 and CuO components was thus critical to excellent light-induced CO2 reduction properties of the CeO2 NPs/CuO NPs/Cu catalyst. Results encourage the wider application of composite semiconductor electrodes in carbon dioxide reduction.
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