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A Heterogeneous Carbon Nitride–Nickel Photocatalyst for Efficient Low‐Temperature CO 2 Methanation
Author(s) -
Barrio Jesús,
Mateo Diego,
Albero Josep,
García Hermenegildo,
Shalom Menny
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.201902738
Subject(s) - methanation , materials science , graphitic carbon nitride , carbon nitride , photocatalysis , catalysis , chemical engineering , carbon fibers , hydrogen , methane , hydrogen production , nickel , nitride , water gas shift reaction , photochemistry , nanotechnology , metallurgy , chemistry , organic chemistry , layer (electronics) , composite number , engineering , composite material
The Sabatier reaction, i.e., the hydrogenation of CO 2 to methane (CH 4 ) using hydrogen (H 2 ), constitutes a potentially scalable method to store energy in a product with a high energy density. However, up to today, this reaction has been mainly thermally driven and conducted at high temperatures (typically 400–600 °C). Using light as a renewable energy source will allow for a more sustainable process by lowering the reaction temperature. Here, it is demonstrated that Ni nanoparticles support on graphitic carbon nitride (g‐CN) are a highly efficient and stable photocatalyst for the gas‐phase CO 2 methanation at low temperature (150 °C). Detailed mechanistic studies reveal a very low activation energy for the reaction and high activity under visible light, leading to a remarkable and continuous CH 4 production of 28 µmol g −1 h −1 of CH 4 for 24 h.