Highly Efficient Photothermal Reduction of CO2 on Pd2Cu Dispersed TiO2 Photocatalyst and Operando DRIFT Spectroscopic Analysis of Reactive Intermediates

Munirathinam Elavarasan; Willie Yang; Sethupathi Velmurugan; Jyy-Ning Chen; Thomas C-K Yang; Toshiyuki Yokoi

doi:10.3390/nano12030332

Highly Efficient Photothermal Reduction of CO₂ on Pd₂Cu Dispersed TiO₂ Photocatalyst and Operando DRIFT Spectroscopic Analysis of Reactive Intermediates

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Jan 21;12(3):332. doi: 10.3390/nano12030332.

Authors

Munirathinam Elavarasan¹, Willie Yang², Sethupathi Velmurugan³, Jyy-Ning Chen¹, Thomas C-K Yang^{1

3}, Toshiyuki Yokoi²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Section 3, Chung-Hsiao East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan.
² Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan.
³ Precision Analysis and Material Research Center, National Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Section 3, Chung-Hsiao East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan.

Abstract

The photocatalytic conversion of CO₂ to fuels using solar energy presents meaningful potential in the mitigation of global warming, solar energy conversion, and fuel production. Photothermal catalysis is one promising approach to convert chemically inert CO₂ into value-added chemicals. Herein, we report the selective hydrogenation of CO₂ to ethanol by Pd₂Cu alloy dispersed TiO₂ (P25) photocatalyst. Under UV-Vis irradiation, the Pd₂Cu/P25 showed an efficient CO₂ reduction photothermally at 150 °C with an ethanol production rate of 4.1 mmol g^-1 h^-1. Operando diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) absorption studies were used to trace the reactive intermediates involved in CO₂ hydrogenation in detail. Overall, the Cu provides the active sites for CO₂ adsorption and Pd involves the oxidation of H₂ molecule generated from P25 and C-C bond formation.

Keywords: CO2 reduction; DRIFT; alloy; photocatalytic H2O oxidation; photothermal reactor.

Grants and funding

110-2221-E-027-006-MY2/Ministry of Science and Technology Taiwan