Direct growth of carbon nanotubes on Ni/TiO2 as next generation catalysts for photoreduction of CO2 to methane by water under visible light irradiation

In this communication, we demonstrate for the first time that CNT@Ni/TiO2 nanocomposites were active in the photoreduction of CO2 into methane (CH4) under visible light irradiation. The nanocomposites were synthesized via co-precipitation followed by chemical vapor deposition at 750 degrees C. Our results showed that the band gap of the nanocomposites was 2.22 eV, leading to high absorption of visible light. The photocatalytic results exhibited the highest CH4 yield of 0.145 mu mol g(catalyst)(-1) h(-1) using CNT@Ni/TiO2 nanocomposites compared with Ni/TiO2 and pure anatase TiO2 owing to the synergistic combination of the CNTs and TiO2.