Open AccessConversion of water and carbon dioxide into methanol with solar energy on Au/Co nanostructured surfaces
Author(s) -
Qinghua Zhu,
Cong Wang,
Haizhou Ren,
Ming Zeng,
Zhe Kan,
Zibo Wang,
Mengyan Shen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
materials research express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.383
H-Index - 35
ISSN - 2053-1591
DOI - 10.1088/2053-1591/ab7d0e
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , cobalt , materials science , nanoparticle , carbon monoxide , methanol , photochemistry , chemical engineering , excited state , hydrogen , artificial photosynthesis , adsorption , molecule , electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide , nanotechnology , chemistry , catalysis , organic chemistry , atomic physics , physics , engineering , metallurgy
Conversion of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and water (H 2 O) to methanol (CH 3 OH) is achieved through an artificial photosynthesis procedure utilizing cobalt (Co) micro-particle based photocatalyst and solar energy in a simple, closed reactor. The photocatalyst is fabricated by exposing the surfaces of cobalt microparticles to femtosecond laser irradiation in a gold chloride (AuCl) solution. The morphology and composite of the photocatalyst surfaces were observed and detected to be a layer of cobalt dioxide (CoO) nano-flakes on which some gold (Au) nanoparticles were deposited. The Au nanoparticles harvest the Sunlight energy through a plasmonic effect. The energy absorbed by Au nanoparticles creates electrons and holes which excite the H 2 O and CO 2 molecules adsorbed on CoO nanostructure surfaces to form excited hydrogen (H 2 )* and excited carbon monoxide (CO)* on the CoO surface. The excited molecules combine to form CH 3 OH on the CoO surface. The Au/CoO/Co nanostructured surfaces are useful for developing a low-cost method to convert solar energy to chemical energy in the form of methanol.