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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2023, 12(8): 1641-1654 https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2023.9220778
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 25 July 2023

Highly selective photocatalytic CO2 reduction to ethylene in pure water by Nb2O5 nanoparticles with enriched surface –OH groups under simulated solar illumination

Show Author's Information Haoyu Zhang,  Shuang Gao( ),  Haitao Guan,  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:
photocatalytic CO2 reduction, thermal decomposition, niobium oxide nanoparticles, simulated solar illumination, surface hydroxyl (–OH) groups
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Zhang H, Gao S, Guan H, et al. Highly selective photocatalytic CO2 reduction to ethylene in pure water by Nb2O5 nanoparticles with enriched surface –OH groups under simulated solar illumination. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2023, 12(8): 1641-1654. https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2023.9220778
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction to valuable chemical compounds could be a promising approach for carbon-neutral practice. In this work, a simple and robust thermal decomposition process was developed with ammonium carbonate ((NH4)2CO3) as both precipitation agent and sacrificial template to produce fine Nb2O5 nanoparticles with the rich existence of surface hydroxyl (–OH) groups. It was found by density functional theory (DFT) calculations and experiments that the rich existence of the surface –OH groups enhanced the adsorption of both reactants (CO2 and H2O molecules) for the photocatalytic CO2 reduction on these fine Nb2O5 nanoparticles, and the highly selective conversion of CO2 to the high-value chemical compound of ethylene (C2H4, ~68 μmol·g−1·h−1 with ~100% product selectivity) was achieved under simulated solar illumination without usage of any sacrificial agents or noble metal cocatalysts. This synthesis process may also be readily applied as a surface engineering method to enrich the existence of the surface –OH groups on various metal oxide-based photocatalysts for a broad range of technical applications.


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About this article

Highly selective photocatalytic CO2 reduction to ethylene in pure water by Nb2O5 nanoparticles with enriched surface –OH groups under simulated solar illumination

Show Author's information Haoyu Zhang, Shuang Gao( ), Haitao Guan, 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 to valuable chemical compounds could be a promising approach for carbon-neutral practice. In this work, a simple and robust thermal decomposition process was developed with ammonium carbonate ((NH4)2CO3) as both precipitation agent and sacrificial template to produce fine Nb2O5 nanoparticles with the rich existence of surface hydroxyl (–OH) groups. It was found by density functional theory (DFT) calculations and experiments that the rich existence of the surface –OH groups enhanced the adsorption of both reactants (CO2 and H2O molecules) for the photocatalytic CO2 reduction on these fine Nb2O5 nanoparticles, and the highly selective conversion of CO2 to the high-value chemical compound of ethylene (C2H4, ~68 μmol·g−1·h−1 with ~100% product selectivity) was achieved under simulated solar illumination without usage of any sacrificial agents or noble metal cocatalysts. This synthesis process may also be readily applied as a surface engineering method to enrich the existence of the surface –OH groups on various metal oxide-based photocatalysts for a broad range of technical applications.

Keywords: photocatalytic CO2 reduction, thermal decomposition, niobium oxide nanoparticles, simulated solar illumination, surface hydroxyl (–OH) groups

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Publication history

Received: 20 April 2023
Revised: 26 May 2023
Accepted: 06 June 2023
Published: 25 July 2023
Issue date: August 2023

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© The Author(s) 2023.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52272125 and 51902271), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos. 2682021CX116, 2682020CX07, and 2682020CX08), and Sichuan Science and Technology Program (Grant Nos. 2020YJ0259, 2020YJ0072, 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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