Photoreduction of CO2 over Ruthenium dye-sensitized TiO2-based catalysts under concentrated natural sunlight

Metal doped TiO2 catalyst sensitized with Ru-II(2,2'-bipyridyl-4,4'-dicarboxylate)2-(NCS)(2) (N3 dye) is employed to photoreduce CO2 with H2O under concentrated natural sunlight to fuels in an optical-fiber photoreactor. Production rate of methane of 0.617 mu mol/g-cat h is measured on N3-dye-Cu(0.5 wt%)-Fe(0.5 wt%)/TiO2 coated on optical fiber in April 12, 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan with the average concentrated solar light intensity of 20 mW/cm(2). Full absorption of visible light of N3-dye along with efficient charge transfer in N3 dye-TiO2 system give rise to the superior photoreduction of the resulting dye adsorbed catalyst. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.