Coaxial electrospinning prepared Cu species loaded SrTiO3 for efficient photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CH3OH

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction plays an important role in solving environmental issues and alleviating the energy crisis. However, it is still challenging to distribute the surface-active site on photocatalysts with efficient separation of carriers in rational. Herein, the Cu species loaded SrTiO3 nanofiber was constructed through coaxial electrospinning which could realize the dispersion of the Cu site on the one-dimensional (1D) nanofiber structure. The 1D nanofiber with Cu site exhibited superior performance on photocatalytic CO2 reduction based on the excellent ability of charge separation. The Cu2O and CuO were determined to be located on the surface of 1D SrTiO3 nanofiber by the TEM and XPS. The work functions of SrTiO3, Cu2O, and CuO were calculated to be 5.26, 5.47, and 5.51 eV, respectively, suggesting that the carriers could transfer from SrTiO3 nanofiber to the Cu species. The yield of CH3OH with the optimized 8%Cu-SrTiO3 catalyst could reach 8.08 ± 0.03 µmol⋅g−1⋅h−1. This work provided a coaxial electrospinning strategy to load the Cu species active site on the surface of 1D SrTiO3 nanofiber for enhancing photoreduction CO2.