TY - JOUR
T1 - Hierarchical hyper-branched titania nanorods with tuneable selectivity for CO2 photoreduction
AU - Stelios, Gavrielides
AU - Tan, Jeannie Z. Y.
AU - Maroto-Valer, M. Mercedes
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the financial support provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EP/K021796/1 and CRITICAT Centre for Doctoral Training for financial support [PhD studentship to SG; Grant code: EP/L016419/1] and the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS) at Heriot-Watt University. The electron microscopy facility in the School of Chemistry, University of St. Andrews, which is supported by the EPSRC Capital for Great Technologies Grant EP/L017008/1, is acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Utilising captured CO2 and converting it into solar fuels can be extremely beneficial in reducing the constantly rising CO2 concentration in the atmosphere while simultaneously addressing energy crisis issues. Hence, many researchers have focused their work on the CO2 photoreduction reaction for the last 4 decades. Herein, the titania hyper-branched nanorod (HBN) thin films, with a novel hierarchical dendritic morphology, revealed enhanced CO2 photoreduction performance. The HBNs exhibited enhanced photogenerated charge production (66%), in comparison with P25 (39%), due to the unique hyper-branched morphology. Furthermore, the proposed HBN thin films exhibited a high degree of control over the product selectivity, by undergoing a facile phase-altering treatment. The selectivity was shifted from 91% towards CO, to 67% towards CH4. Additionally, the HBN samples showed the potential to surpass the conversion rates of the benchmark P25 TiO2 in both CO and CH4 production. To further enhance the selectivity and overall performance of the HBNs, RuO2 was incorporated into the synthesis, which enhanced the CH4 selectivity from 67% to 74%; whereas the incorporation of CuO revealed a selectivity profile comparative to P25. This journal is
AB - Utilising captured CO2 and converting it into solar fuels can be extremely beneficial in reducing the constantly rising CO2 concentration in the atmosphere while simultaneously addressing energy crisis issues. Hence, many researchers have focused their work on the CO2 photoreduction reaction for the last 4 decades. Herein, the titania hyper-branched nanorod (HBN) thin films, with a novel hierarchical dendritic morphology, revealed enhanced CO2 photoreduction performance. The HBNs exhibited enhanced photogenerated charge production (66%), in comparison with P25 (39%), due to the unique hyper-branched morphology. Furthermore, the proposed HBN thin films exhibited a high degree of control over the product selectivity, by undergoing a facile phase-altering treatment. The selectivity was shifted from 91% towards CO, to 67% towards CH4. Additionally, the HBN samples showed the potential to surpass the conversion rates of the benchmark P25 TiO2 in both CO and CH4 production. To further enhance the selectivity and overall performance of the HBNs, RuO2 was incorporated into the synthesis, which enhanced the CH4 selectivity from 67% to 74%; whereas the incorporation of CuO revealed a selectivity profile comparative to P25. This journal is
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119952853&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1039/d1ra05414g
DO - 10.1039/d1ra05414g
M3 - Article
C2 - 35495501
AN - SCOPUS:85119952853
SN - 2046-2069
VL - 11
SP - 32022
EP - 32029
JO - RSC Advances
JF - RSC Advances
IS - 51
ER -