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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2022, 11(9): 1404-1416 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-022-0619-x
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 22 July 2022

Creation of SnxNb1−xO2 solid solution through heavy Nb-doping in SnO2 to boost its photocatalytic CO2 reduction to C2+ products under simulated solar illumination

Show Author's Information Shuang GAO( ),  Haitao GUAN,  Hongyang WANG,  Xinhe YANG,  Weiyi YANG,  Qi LI( )
Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
Keywords:
solid solution, tin oxide, photocatalytic CO2 reduction, heavy Nb-doping, C2+ product
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GAO S, GUAN H, WANG H, et al. Creation of SnxNb1−xO2 solid solution through heavy Nb-doping in SnO2 to boost its photocatalytic CO2 reduction to C2+ products under simulated solar illumination. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2022, 11(9): 1404-1416. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-022-0619-x
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction driven by green solar energy could be a promising approach for the carbon neutral practice. In this work, a novel defect engineering approach was developed to form the SnxNb1−xO2 solid solution by the heavy substitutional Nb-doping of SnO2 through a robust hydrothermal process. The detailed analysis demonstrated that the heavy substitution of Sn4+ by a higher valence Nb5+ created a more suitable band structure, a better photogenerated charge carrier separation and transfer, and stronger CO2 adsorption due to the presence of abundant acid centers and excess electrons on its surface. Thus, the SnxNb1−xO2 solid solution sample demonstrated a much better photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance compared to the pristine SnO2 sample without the need for sacrificial agent. Its photocatalytic CO2 reduction efficiency reached ~292.47 µmol/(g·h), which was 19 times that of the pristine SnO2 sample. Furthermore, its main photocatalytic CO2 reduction product was a more preferred multi-carbon (C2+) compound of C2H5OH, while that of the pristine SnO2 sample was a one-carbon (C1) compound of CH3OH. This work demonstrated that, the heavy doping of high valence cations in metal oxides to form solid solution may enhance the photocatalytic CO2 reduction and modulate its reduction process, to produce more C2+ products. This material design strategy could be readily applied to various material systems for the exploration of high-performance photocatalysts for the solar-driven CO2 reduction.


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About this article

Creation of SnxNb1−xO2 solid solution through heavy Nb-doping in SnO2 to boost its photocatalytic CO2 reduction to C2+ products under simulated solar illumination

Show Author's information Shuang GAO( ), Haitao GUAN, Hongyang WANG, Xinhe YANG, Weiyi YANG, Qi LI( )
Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China

Abstract

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction driven by green solar energy could be a promising approach for the carbon neutral practice. In this work, a novel defect engineering approach was developed to form the SnxNb1−xO2 solid solution by the heavy substitutional Nb-doping of SnO2 through a robust hydrothermal process. The detailed analysis demonstrated that the heavy substitution of Sn4+ by a higher valence Nb5+ created a more suitable band structure, a better photogenerated charge carrier separation and transfer, and stronger CO2 adsorption due to the presence of abundant acid centers and excess electrons on its surface. Thus, the SnxNb1−xO2 solid solution sample demonstrated a much better photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance compared to the pristine SnO2 sample without the need for sacrificial agent. Its photocatalytic CO2 reduction efficiency reached ~292.47 µmol/(g·h), which was 19 times that of the pristine SnO2 sample. Furthermore, its main photocatalytic CO2 reduction product was a more preferred multi-carbon (C2+) compound of C2H5OH, while that of the pristine SnO2 sample was a one-carbon (C1) compound of CH3OH. This work demonstrated that, the heavy doping of high valence cations in metal oxides to form solid solution may enhance the photocatalytic CO2 reduction and modulate its reduction process, to produce more C2+ products. This material design strategy could be readily applied to various material systems for the exploration of high-performance photocatalysts for the solar-driven CO2 reduction.

Keywords: solid solution, tin oxide, photocatalytic CO2 reduction, heavy Nb-doping, C2+ product

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Publication history

Received: 04 January 2022
Revised: 31 May 2022
Accepted: 03 June 2022
Published: 22 July 2022
Issue date: September 2022

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© The Author(s) 2022.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51902271), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos. 2682020CX07, 2682020CX08, and 2682021CX116), and Sichuan Science and Technology Program (Grant Nos. 2020YJ0072, 2020YJ0259, and 2021YFH0163). We would like to thank Analysis and Testing Center of Southwest Jiaotong University for the assistance on material characterization.

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