Photocatalytic Optical Hollow Fiber with Enhanced Visible-light-driven CO₂ Reduction

A visible-light-driven CO₂ reduction optical fiber is fabricated using graphene-like nitrogen-doped composites and hollow quartz optical fibers to achieve enhanced activity, selectivity, and light utilization for CO₂ photoreduction. The composites are synthesized from a lead-based metal-organic framework (TMOF-10-NH₂) and g-C₃N₄ nanosheet (CNNS) via electrostatic self-assembly. The TMOF-10-NH₂/g-C₃N₄ (TMOF/CNNS) photocatalyst with an S-type heterojunction is coated on optical fiber. The TMOF/CNNS coating, which has a bandgap energy of 2.15 eV, has good photoinduced capability at the coating interfaces, high photogenerated electron-hole pair yield, and high charge transfer rate. The conduction band potential of the TMOF/CNNS coating is more negative than that for CO₂ reduction. Moreover, TMOF facilitates the CO desorption on its surface, thereby improving the selectivity for CO production. High CO₂ photoreduction and selectivity for CO production is demonstrated by the TMOF/CNNS-coated optical fiber with the cladding/core diameter of 2000/1000 µm, 10 wt% TMOF in CNNS, coating thickness of 25 µm, initial CO₂ concentration of 90 vol%, and relative humidity of 88% RH under the excitation wavelength of 380-780 nm. Overall, the photocatalytic hollow optical fiber developed herein provides an effective and efficient approach for the enhancement of light utilization efficiency of photocatalysts and selective CO₂ reduction.