Photoelectrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 over CuBi2O4/TiO2‐NTs under Simulated Solar Irradiation

Abstract

AbstractThe present study focused on the photoelectrocatalytic reduction of CO2 on CuBi2O4/TiO2‐NTs(TiO2 nanotube arrays)catalyst under simulated solar irradiation. CuBi2O4 was successfully loaded on TiO2‐NTs via pulse deposition regime from a nitric acid aqueous solution with Bi3+/Cu2+ molar ratio of 2, followed by calcination in air at 450 °C. A series of condition experiments were conducted to obtain excellent‐performance CuBi2O4 film. The crystalline structure, morphology and elemental composition of catalysts were characterized by X‐ray diffractometer(XRD), field‐emission scanning electron microscope (FE‐SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Light absorption characteristics were analyzed by ultraviolet‐visible spectrophotometer (UV‐Vis). Experimental results show that the coupling of CuBi2O4 and TiO2‐NTs leads to a better visible light response and photoelectrocatalytic performance for CO2 reduction. The photocurrent on CuBi2O4/TiO2‐NTs electrode increases significantly compared with that on TiO2‐NTs. Under optimized experimental condition, the photocurrent is up to 0.5 mA cm−2 at potential of −0.5 V vs. SCE. The liquid products determined by Gas Chromatograph are mainly composed of ethanol with minor formaldehyde.