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Molecularly engineered photocatalyst sheet for scalable solar formate production from carbon dioxide and water

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

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Authors

Wang, Q 
Warnan, J 
Rodríguez-Jiménez, S 
Leung, JJ 
Kalathil, S 

Abstract

Harvesting solar energy to convert CO2 into chemical fuels is a promising technology to curtail the growing atmospheric CO2 levels and alleviate the global dependence on fossil fuels; however, the assembly of efficient and robust systems for the selective photoconversion of CO2 without sacrificial reagents and external bias remains a challenge. Here we present a photocatalyst sheet that converts CO2 and H2O into formate and O2 as a potentially scalable technology for CO2 utilization. This technology integrates lanthanum- and rhodium-doped SrTiO3 (SrTiO3:La,Rh) and molybdenum-doped BiVO4 (BiVO4:Mo) light absorbers modified by phosphonated Co(ii) bis(terpyridine) and RuO2 catalysts onto a gold layer. The monolithic device provides a solar-to-formate conversion efficiency of 0.08 ± 0.01% with a selectivity for formate of 97 ± 3%. As the device operates wirelessly and uses water as an electron donor, it offers a versatile strategy toward scalable and sustainable CO2 reduction using molecular-based hybrid photocatalysts.

Description

Keywords

40 Engineering, 4008 Electrical Engineering, 4017 Mechanical Engineering, 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Journal Title

Nature Energy

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2058-7546
2058-7546

Volume Title

5

Publisher

Nature Research

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (744317)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (793996)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) (828838)
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