In-situ grown nanocrystal TiO2 on 2D Ti3C2 nanosheets for artificial photosynthesis of chemical fuels

By Yanjie Xu, Shuai Wang, Jun Yang, B. Han, Rong Nie, Jixian Wang, Jianguo Wang, Huanwang Jing. Nano Energy, 2018

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Abstract Artificial photosynthesis of high-valued chemicals is a promising route to alleviate global warming and energy crisis. Herein, a layered hybrid heterojunction of TiO2/Ti3C2 was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal oxidation method. The TiO2/Ti3C2 heterojunction was further functionalized by imine ligands and Pd nanoparticles, and used as a photocathode in CO2 reduction for the first time. These layered TiO2/Ti3C2 heterojunction materials have narrow band gap (2.1 eV), which contributes to the absorption of visible light. In the artificial photosynthetic cell of Pd/N-TiO2/Ti3C2||BiVO4, some hydrocarbon, such as formate, methanol and ethanol, were generated efficiently. The evolution rate of total hydrocarbon was as high as 73.6 μM cm−2 h−1 (36.8 mM h−1 g−1). The hydrogen gas can be evolved in the photoelectrocatalysis cell when the external voltage provided by Si solar cell is as low as − 0.4 V, due to the high activity of the heterojunction structure. The highest apparent light quantum efficiency of artificial photosynthesis cell was 1.78% at − 1.0 V. The carbon source of products was derived from CO2, which was verified by 13CO2 labeling experiments. The experimental results suggest that the in-situ formed TiO2/Ti3C2 heterojunction materials can be employed as candidates for efficiently photoelectrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to chemical fuels.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/114af5239f96b50a13d34ee158edde919a155157