Enhancing the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 through engineering of catalysts with high pressure technology: Pd/TiO2 photocatalysts

Converting carbon dioxide (CO2) to hydrocarbons that can be used as fuel is beneficial from both environmental and economic points of view. However, more efficient catalysts should be developed to bring the process from laboratory to commercial scale. Thus, in this study, in order to improve the CO2 conversion process, Pd doped photocatalysts based on titanium dioxide (Pd/TiO2) are synthesized. The new catalysts are produced from alcohols and precursors of titania and Pd in the presence of supercritical carbon dioxide so the dispersion of metal species (palladium) into the TiO2 lattice is possible. Following this approach, photocatalysts with better or similar features (higher values of crystallinity, surface area, and improved absorbance in visible range) than those of commercial TiO2 have been produced. Moreover, methane and CO production rates up to 22 and 2 times higher than those corresponding to the commercial catalyst, respectively, have been attained with Pd/TiO2 photocatalysts synthesized in this work. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.