Visible light assisted photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to ethane using CQDs/Cu2O nanocomposite photocatalyst

Abstract CO2 reduction through photocatalysis is considered a promising way to mitigate the abundance of this greenhouse gas in the earth's atmosphere. In this work, blue-fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were synthesized via a facile top-down hydrothermal method using biochar as the carbon source. The as-synthesized CQDs were incorporated together with commercial copper (I) oxide (Cu2O) nanoparticles to form CQDs/Cu2O nanocomposite. The CQDs, Cu2O and CQDs/Cu2O nanocomposite were then applied for gas phase photocatalytic reduction of CO2. The experiments were performed under visible light irradiation in a self-designated photoreactor which was connected to an online Gas Chromatography (GC). High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) confirmed the uniform deposition of CQDs with size ranging from 2.5 to 6.0 nm on the surface of Cu2O nanoparticles. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy further revealed the presence of CQDs on the surface of Cu2O. The CQDs/Cu2O nanocomposite photocatalyst showed a considerable improvement in the CO2 photoreduction with an enhancement of 54% compared to the pure Cu2O. In addition, the band alignment of CQDs/Cu2O, charge carriers transfer and separation as well as possible reaction pathways for CO2 photoreduction was proposed. Finally, the photostability test revealed the CQDs/Cu2O nanocomposite was able to retain its photostability of up to ~90% under five cycles of photoreaction.