Boosting the Photocatalytic Activity of P25 for Carbon Dioxide Reduction by using a Surface-Alkalinized Titanium Carbide MXene as Cocatalyst

Minheng Ye; Xin Wang; Enzuo Liu; Jinhua Ye; Defa Wang

doi:10.1002/cssc.201800083

Boosting the Photocatalytic Activity of P25 for Carbon Dioxide Reduction by using a Surface-Alkalinized Titanium Carbide MXene as Cocatalyst

ChemSusChem. 2018 May 25;11(10):1606-1611. doi: 10.1002/cssc.201800083. Epub 2018 Mar 23.

Authors

Minheng Ye¹, Xin Wang¹, Enzuo Liu^{1

2}, Jinhua Ye^{1

2

3}, Defa Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ TJU-NIMS International Collaboration Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology (Ministry of Education, China), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin, 300072, P.R. China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin, 300072, P.R. China.
³ International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan.

PMID: 29498227
DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201800083

Abstract

Although they are widely used as cocatalysts in promoting photocatalysis, practical application of noble metals is limited by their high cost and rarity. Development of noble-metal-free cocatalysts is thus highly demanded. Herein titanium carbide (Ti₃ C₂ ) MXene is shown to be a highly efficient noble-metal-free cocatalyst with commercial titania (P25) for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction. Surface alkalinization of Ti₃ C₂ dramatically enhances the activity; the evolution rates of CO (11.74 μmol g^-1 h^-1 ) and CH₄ (16.61 μmol g^-1 h^-1 ) are 3- and 277-times higher than those of bare P25, respectively. The significantly enhanced activity is attributed to the superior electrical conductivity and charge-carrier separation ability, as well as the abundant CO₂ adsorption and activation sites of surface-alkalinized Ti₃ C₂ MXene, indicating its promise as a highly-active noble-metal-free cocatalysts for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction.

Keywords: MXenes; carbon dioxide; cocatalysts; heterogeneous catalysis; photocatalysis.