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Published on: October 5, 2019
Highly Efficient and Selective Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction to Ethanol by Cu4 Clusters with Adjacent Cu Single Atoms
Zhenguo Guo1, Houjuan Yang1, Xi Huang1
1Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Value-Added Catalytic Conversion and Reaction Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, P.R. China.
Abstract:
An efficient photocatalyst for CO2-to-CH3CH2OH conversion comprising atomically dispersed Cu clusters (Cu4) and single Cu sites coordinated with 2 N and 1 O anchored on two-step calcinated C3N4 (Cu4/Cu1@CN) is reported. It was found to catalyze the reduction of CO2 to ethanol with production rate of 154 µmol g-1 h-1 and selectivity of 98%, the yield rate and selectivity exceed most of the reported results for ethanol production. Experimental and theoretical calculations indicate that the high efficiency of this catalyst arises from the strong synergy between Cu4 clusters and adjacent Cu single atoms, which facilitates OC─CO coupling and promotes ethanol production.
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