Abstract
To reduce the effects of global warming, visible and near-infrared light must be used more efficiently. Deep ultraviolet light (8 eV) is required for the direct dissociation of CO2 by light; however, the introduction of a metal complex has made it possible to realize CO2 reduction with visible light. We demonstrate that the optical near field (ONF) can increase the CO2 reduction rate. For this, we used gold clusters, because they can be a suitable source for ONFs, as their size and density can be controlled by the number of gold atoms. By attaching a metal complex near gold clusters with diameters of 1.0 to 1.3 nm, we confirm that the reduction rate of CO2 to CO increased by 1.5 to 2.1 times. The gold clusters were sufficiently small; therefore, there was no plasmonic resonant peak or heat generation. Because the near-field effect is based on a photochemical reaction, it can be applied to other metal complexes used in CO2 reduction, and it has other applications such as water splitting and water purification.
Highlights
IntroductionThe use of a metal complex for CO2 reduction has increasingly attracted research attention
The use of a metal complex for CO2 reduction has increasingly attracted research attention. This is because of its ability to facilitate the use of visible light for CO2 reduction,[1,2] which otherwise requires deep ultraviolet radiations to perform the direct dissociation of CO2 owing to its large dissociation energy (∼8 eV).[3]
To arrange the gold clusters in the vicinity of the metal complex, first, the gold clusters were deposited on an alumina sphere, and the metal complex was deposited on the alumina sphere
Summary
The use of a metal complex for CO2 reduction has increasingly attracted research attention. This is because of its ability to facilitate the use of visible light for CO2 reduction,[1,2] which otherwise requires deep ultraviolet radiations to perform the direct dissociation of CO2 owing to its large dissociation energy (∼8 eV).[3] Several metal complexes have been developed to realize the above objective, including Re,[4] Ru, and Cu.[6,7,8,9] previous investigations on this topic mainly focused on the band engineering of materials using complexes. Field enhancement requires plasmon resonance; its effects are only observed near the resonant wavelength of the metal complex. Unique ONF properties, owing to which ONFs do not require plasmon resonance, have been investigated.[11,12,13] As the ONF is localized in the nanoscale range, it has a nonuniform optical field
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