Ni0.85Co0.15WO4 for Photocatalytic Reduction of CO2 Under Mild Conditions with High Activity and Selectivity

Abstract

Efficient catalysts play an important role in photoreduction of greenhouse gases (CO2 etc.) to value-added chemicals such as CO. In this work, we synthesized a series of Ni1−xCoxWO4 (x = 0–1) catalysts by chemical co-deposition method. Among the prepared materials, Ni0.85Co0.15WO4 exhibits superior catalytic performance for photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO with [Ru(bpy)3]Cl2·6H2O as the photosensitizer. The productivity and selectivity of CO are 14.33 mmol g−1 h−1 and 86.4%, respectively under visible light irradiation. The experimental results demonstrate that superiority of electron conductivity of metal tungstates and the high activity of Co active sites facilitate the separation and transfer of photo-induced charges and lead to the excellent performance of photcatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO. Ni0.85Co0.15WO4, combining the superiority of electron conductivity of metal tungstates with the high activity of Co active sites, exhibits high productivity and selectivity of CO in photo-reduction of CO2.