Publication date: 31st March 2013
The concern of rising CO2 emissions and the increasing demand of clean energy have drawn much attention to the utilization and minimization of CO2[1]. Promoting CO2 into other useful organic compounds is one of the most challenging reactions in chemistry, since CO2 is extremely stable in its gaseous phase. Photocatalytic CO2 reduction is a promising clean energy alternative that converts and stores solar energy in a chemical form. Very recently, great success in CO2 photoreduction to CO by photocatalysis has been achieved, either in a homogeneous or heterogeneous system, (e.g. rhenium-complexes or RuP dye-modified TiO2 coupled with the reducing enzyme CODH). However, most of the reported photocatalysts require an efficient hole scavenger. On the other hand, some materials can photoreduce CO2 in the absence of a hole scavenger; the corresponding oxygen evolution from water oxidation by photogenerated hole was not detected which brings up concerns about the function of photogenerated holes in photocatalyst and subsequently stability of the inorganic photocatalysts. Water is the ideal hole acceptor since it has to be used in the CO2 reduction as a proton source and it is earth-abundant. Unlike other organic hole scavengers, the water oxidation process is extremely slow and requires high energy potential [2, 3]. Only a very few wide band-gap materials can perform CO2 reduction accompanied by water oxidation. Therefore, finding a photocatalyst within solar spectrum region that can simultaneously oxidize water and reduce CO2 is the key for CO2 photoredcution technology.
Herein, we present potassium tantalate, which has a bandgap within the solar spectrum, achieving photocatalytic CO2 conversion using water as sole electron donor. Both reduction products (CO and hydrogen) and oxidation product (oxygen) were simultaneous detected. Furthermore KTaO3 with different morphologies was synthesised. The effects of particle size and morphology were studied. Nanoflake-structured KTaO3 shows more than 7 times higher activity for both CO2 and proton reduction compared with spherical particles.
KTaO3 acting as a photocatalyst for CO2 conversion
[1] K.Li, D.J. Martin, J. Tang, Chinese Journal of Catalysis, Elsevier, China, 2011 [2] J. W. Tang, J. R. Durrant and D. R. Klug, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130, 13885-13891 [3] J. Tang, A. J. Cowan, J. R. Durrant and D. R. Klug, Journal of physical Chemistry C, 2011, 115, 3143-3150 [4] K.Li, A. D. Handoko, M. Khraisheh, J. Tang, Energy & Environmental Science, in revision.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.