Photoelectrocatalytic CO2 conversion over carbon @ silicon carbide composites

Abstract

Artificial photosynthesis, which utilizes sunlight to produce value-added chemicals and fuels from CO2, is a promising strategy to storage fluctuating solar energy and to realize zero carbon cycle simultaneously. While selective C2+ production via CO2 photoelectrocatalytic conversion remains a challenge due to the sluggish C-C coupling kinetics over current artificial photosynthesis catalysts. Herein, we present a carbon @ silicon carbide (C@SiC) catalyst for ambient CO2 photoelectric reduction under simulated solar irradiation, giving a CO2 conversion rate of 487 μmol∙gcat−1∙h−1 with an ethanol selectivity of 87.8%. The optimal sp2/sp3 carbon ratio of carbon layer not only facilitates the photo-generated electrons transfer from SiC to carbon layer, but also favors the C-C coupling kinetics of key intermediates for efficient CO2 to ethanol conversion.