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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

CO2 Photoreduction to CH4 Performance Under Concentrating Solar Light
Published on: June 12, 2019
Open framework metal chalcogenides as efficient photocatalysts for reduction of CO2 into renewable hydrocarbon fuel
Koroush Sasan1, Qipu Lin, Chengyu Mao
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA. pingyun.feng@ucr.edu.
Abstract:
Open framework metal chalcogenides are a family of porous semiconducting materials with diverse chemical compositions. Here we show that these materials containing covalent three-dimensional superlattices of nanosized supertetrahedral clusters can function as efficient photocatalysts for the reduction of CO2 to CH4. Unlike dense semiconductors, metal cations are successfully incorporated into the channels of the porous semiconducting materials to further tune the physical properties of the materials such as electrical conductivity and band gaps. In terms of the photocatalytic properties, the metal-incorporated porous chalcogenides demonstrated enhanced solar energy absorption and higher electrical conductivity and improved photocatalytic activity.
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