Facile synthesis of highly active reduced graphene oxide-CuI catalyst through a simple combustion method for photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methanol

Abstract

We report a facile combustion method synthesis of reduced graphene oxide/CuI composites as a photocatalyst, in which CuI nanoparticles were homogeneously distributed on the surface of reduced graphene oxide (rGO), showing a good visible light response. The rGO-supported and unsupported CuI hybrids were tested over the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 for methanol evolution in visible light. In the current study rGO-CuI composites have shown excellent yields (19.91μmolg-cat−1). rGO provides a light-weight, charge complementary and two-dimensional material that interacts effectively with the CuI nanoparticles.