Dual catalytic system: Cu2O@Bi2WO6 2D nano-chips nanocomposite for CO2 photoreduction with amine promotion towards sustainable energy and chemicals

Abstract

The pursuit of sustainable energy and chemical synthesis propels the development of advanced catalytic systems in photocatalytic CO2 conversion and pharmaceutical chemicals production. The present study demonstrated the decorated Cu2O nanoparticles on a Bi2WO6 surface with effective contact that improved the optical properties of the nanocomposite photocatalyst. The nanocomposite was synthesized via hydrothermal method and achieved ∼7 nm nanoparticle size of Cu2O with a high surface area, refers many active sites at the photocatalyst surface. The photocatalyst efficiently reduced CO2 into CO (2315 μmol-g−1) and CH4 (965 μmol-g−1) under visible light irradiation; simultaneously, the coupling of amines produced chemicals necessary for the pharmaceuticals. In addition, the amine behaves like a sacrificial electron donor in the process; thus, it makes the photocatalytic system prominent in energy conversion.