Photochemical Reduction of CO2 by Graphitic Carbon Nitride Polymers

The combination of cobalt redox catalysis and carbon nitride photocatalysis to construct a cascade photoreaction system has been developed for the deoxygenative reduction of CO2 to CO with visible light. The graphitic carbon nitride has been demonstrated to function both as a capture/activation substrate of CO2 and a photocatalyst, whereas the introduced cobalt species act as reductive and oxidative promoters to accelerate charge-carrier separation and transfer kinetics. This hybrid photosystem contains inexpensive substances that synergetically catalyze CO2-to-CO conversion at mild conditions, with a high stability of catalysts. The optimization in the surface and texture structures as well as reaction conditions has been demonstrated. The results represent an important step toward artificial photosynthesis by using cost-acceptable materials.