Photocatalytic Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide with High Selectivity to Methanol at Atmospheric Pressure
Lu Wang, Mireille Ghoussoub, Hong Wang, Yue Shao, Wei Sun, Athanasios A. Tountas, Thomas E. Wood, Hai Li, Joel Yi Yang Loh, Yuchan Dong, Meikun Xia, Young Li, Shenghua Wang, Jia Jia, Chenyue Qiu, Chenxi Qian, Nazir P. Kherani, Le He, Xiaohong Zhang, Geoffrey A. Ozin
Index: 10.1016/j.joule.2018.03.007
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Abstract
The production of solar methanol, directly from gaseous CO2and H2, is important for the development of a sustainable energy economy. Despite growing activity in the field, very few photocatalysts exist that can efficiently and stably hydrogenate gaseous CO2to methanol at ambient pressure with high selectivity. Here, we report that a defect-laden indium oxide, In2O3−x(OH)y, with a rod-like nanocrystal superstructure, can photocatalyze the hydrogenation of CO2to methanol with 50% selectivity under simulated solar irradiation. Notably, the solar methanol production of the In2O3−x(OH)ynanocrystal superstructures can be stabilized at a rate of 0.06 mmol gcat−1h−1at atmospheric pressure. This is 120 times higher than that of the best-known photocatalysts. This discovery bodes well for the development of a low-pressure solar methanol process using CO2and renewable H2feedstocks.