title: Strategies to design efficient silica-supported photocatalysts for reduction of CO₂.
abstract: The photocatalytic reduction of CO2 by water vapor to produce light hydrocarbons was studied over a series of catalysts consisting of variable loading of Ti incorporated in TUD-1 mesoporous silica, either modified by ZnO nanoparticles or isolated Cr-sites. Unexpectedly, the performance of ZnO-Ti-TUD-1 and Cr-Ti-TUD-1 was inferior to the parent Ti-TUD-1. An explanation can be found in experiments on the photocatalytic degradation of a mixture of hydrocarbons (i.e., CH4, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, and C3H8) under the same illumination conditions. Ti-TUD-1 exhibits the poorest activity in hydrocarbon degradation, while ZnO-Ti-TUD-1 and Cr-Ti-TUD-1 showed very significant degradation rates. This study clearly demonstrates the importance of evaluating hydrocarbon conversion over photocatalysts active in converting CO2 to hydrocarbons (in batch reactors).
authors.affiliation: Photocatalytic Synthesis Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente , Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mohamed S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hamdy
authors.forename: Rezvaneh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Amrollahi
authors.forename: Ilya
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sinev
authors.forename: Bastian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mul