Low-cost visible-light photosynthesis of water and adsorbed carbon dioxide into long-chain hydrocarbons

Ren, Haizhou; Zeng, Ming; Zhu, Qinghua; Zhang, Qing; Kan, Zhe; Wang, Zibo; Shen, Mengyan; Acharige, Mahesh J. Thalavitiya; Ruths, Marina; Ryan, David K.; Li, Guiqin; Kolesov, Grigory; Kaxiras, Efthimios; Mazur, Eric

doi:10.1016/j.cplett.2019.136985

Cited by 10 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…For example, CoO. CoO/Co can also be used for splitting water [31][32][33]. These observations support the existence of intermediate photodissociation processes where excited states or radicals are formed:…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

“…The optical absorption spectra measurements of both the CoO nano-flakes dispersed in water and the CoO nano-flakes on Co microparticles show band gaps at about 2.0 eV [33], which is smaller than that of a bulk crystal (about 2.4 eV) [52][53][54][55]. The spectra also show some absorption structures below the band gap [33]. The CoO nanoflakes have more defects than a bulk crystal, and the defects give rise to the different bandgap and the optical absorption below the bandgap [33].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The spectra also show some absorption structures below the band gap [33]. The CoO nanoflakes have more defects than a bulk crystal, and the defects give rise to the different bandgap and the optical absorption below the bandgap [33]. For clarity, we do not consider the deformation of the electron band structure due to defects and simply show the simple energy diagram in figure 7 to discuss the processes occurring in the reaction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In both figures 7(a) and (b), the light energy was harvested by Au nanoparticles distributed on the surface of Co nanoflakes through the procedure of plasmonic nanofocusing, which provides the driving force to the following reaction. The lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) state of carbon dioxide molecule adsorbed on CoO surface have been calculated [33]. It is found that the CO 2 molecule is chemisorbed on the CoO surface as the binding energy is 1.0 eV, the LUMO is found to be near the CoO conduction band (CB) bottom, and the the band gap of CoO is 2.38 eV.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In previous published papers, we have reported that a layer of flake-shaped, regular nanostructures can be formed on the surfaces cobalt microparticles of diameter of 50-100 μm by using the method of exposing them to a femtosecond laser beam [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. The cobalt microparticle powders with nanostructured surfaces can be used as a photocatalyst [31][32][33]. By using water and carbon dioxide as reactants, adjusting the experimental conditions such as temperature and pressure inside the reactor, hydrocarbons can be synthesized through this photocatalytic reaction with cobalt nanostructures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conversion of water and carbon dioxide into methanol with solar energy on Au/Co nanostructured surfaces

Zhu

Ren

Zeng

et al. 2020

Mater. Res. Express

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Conversion of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and water (H 2 O) to methanol (CH 3 OH) is achieved through an artificial photosynthesis procedure utilizing cobalt (Co) micro-particle based photocatalyst and solar energy in a simple, closed reactor. The photocatalyst is fabricated by exposing the surfaces of cobalt microparticles to femtosecond laser irradiation in a gold chloride (AuCl) solution. The morphology and composite of the photocatalyst surfaces were observed and detected to be a layer of cobalt dioxide (CoO) nano-flakes on which some gold (Au) nanoparticles were deposited. The Au nanoparticles harvest the Sunlight energy through a plasmonic effect. The energy absorbed by Au nanoparticles creates electrons and holes which excite the H 2 O and CO 2 molecules adsorbed on CoO nanostructure surfaces to form excited hydrogen (H 2 ) * and excited carbon monoxide (CO) * on the CoO surface. The excited molecules combine to form CH 3 OH on the CoO surface. The Au/CoO/Co nanostructured surfaces are useful for developing a low-cost method to convert solar energy to chemical energy in the form of methanol.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%