Open AccessSelective synthesis of methanol by photoelectrocatalytic reduction of CO2 over PANI-CuFe2O4 hybrid catalyst
Author(s) -
Kaykobad Md. Rezaul Karim,
Mostafa Tarek,
Shaheen M. Sarkar,
Huei Ruey Ong,
Huda Abdullah,
Chin Kui Cheng,
Maksudur R. Khan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/736/4/042020
Subject(s) - photocathode , methanol , faraday efficiency , photocatalysis , catalysis , materials science , degradation (telecommunications) , chemisorption , quantum efficiency , energy conversion efficiency , photochemistry , chemistry , nuclear chemistry , electrode , optoelectronics , electron , electrochemistry , organic chemistry , physics , telecommunications , quantum mechanics , computer science
In this work, a hybrid photocatalyst, PANI-CuFe 2 O 4 was synthesized, characterized and used as a photocathode for the photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) reduction of CO 2 to methanol selectively under 470 nm wavelength light irradiation at applied potential -0.4 V vs NHE. The PEC results showed that the combination of PANI with CuFe 2 O 4 could increase the rate of PEC CO 2 reduction to methanol owing to the increase of CO 2 chemisorption at the photocathode surface and at the same time by facilitating the separation of photogenerated electron-hole (e − /h + ) pairs during CO 2 reduction. The rate of methanol formation was found maximum as 49.2 μmole g −1 .h −1 with 73% Faradaic efficiency. The incident photon current efficiency (IPCE) and quantum efficiency (QE) for PEC CO 2 reduction was achieved as 7.11% and 23.9% respectively. The PEC results demonstrated that the bias potential played a significant role in the separation of e − /h + pairs and enhanced the PEC CO 2 reduction activity of the hybrid photocatalyst.