(Invited) Solar Synthesis of C1-C4 Chemicals from Carbon Dioxide and Water

Abstract

There is renewed interest in the photoelectrochemical conversion of CO2 into value-added chemicals using various semiconductor particles and electrodes. Common CO2 reduction products are C1 chemicals (CO, HCOOH, CH3OH, and CH4) in aqueous media, while the production of C2-C4 hydrocarbons (e.g., C2H6 and C3H8) has also been reported. A number of solar-active materials have been reported, but they still suffer from low selectivity, poor energy efficiency, and instability, while failing to drive simultaneous water oxidation. This talk presents our recent studies on the solar CO2 conversion to value-added chemicals while using water as an electron donor in various photo-systems [1-5]. [1] S.K. Choi, U. Kang, S. Lee, D.J. Ham, S.M. Ji, and H. Park, Sn-coupled p-Si nanowire arrays for solar formate production from CO2, Advanced Energy Materials 4 (2014) 1301614. [2] H. Park, H.-H. Ou, A.J. Colussi, and M.R. Hoffmann, Artificial photosynthesis of C1 to C3 hydrocarbons from water and CO2 on titanate nanotubes decorated with nanoparticle elemental copper and CdS quantum dots, Journal of Physical Chemistry A 119 (2015) 4658. [3] U. Kang, S.K. Choi, D.J. Ham, S.M. Ji, W. Choi, D.S. Han, A. Abdel-Wahab, and H. Park, Photosynthesis of formate from CO2 and water at 1% energy efficiency via copper iron oxide catalysis, Energy & Environmental Science 8 (2015) 2638. [4] H. Park, H.-H. Ou, U. Kang, J. Choi, and M.R. Hoffmann, Photocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to methane on TiO2/CdS in aqueous isopropanol solution, Catalysis Today 266 (2016) 153 [5] N.C.D. Nath, S.Y. Choi, H.W. Jeong, J.-J. Lee, and H. Park, Nano Energy, revised.