THERMO AND PHOTO-CATALYSIS OF CO2 HYDROGENATION: NANOCATALYST DESIGN

THERMO AND PHOTO-CATALYSIS OF CO2 HYDROGENATION: NANOCATALYST DESIGN

10/09/2023

12:30PM

Letian Wang Amirav’s group, Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion and Zhong’s group, GTIIT

Thermo and Photo-catalysis of CO₂ Hydrogenation: Nanocatalyst Design

Under supervision of Prof. Lilac Amirav (Technion) and Prof. Ziyi Zhong (GTIIT)

With the increasing emission of the main greenhouse gas (CO₂) into the atmosphere, Earth’s global air surface temperature has increased drastically, leading to various extreme weather events. Therefore, it is urgent to develop technologies to decrease the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere. Heterogeneous catalysis of CO₂ hydrogenation to high-value-added chemical products is a promising strategy to achieve the above goals. There are several approaches to conducting the reaction: thermal catalysis, photocatalysis, and photothermal catalysis. To understand and promote CO₂ conversion, we first synthesized CuZnO/Al₂O₃ thermal catalysts for CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol under thermal catalytic conditions. In situ DRIFT studies were carried out to reveal the intermediate species presented on the catalyst surface during the reaction; next, we synthesized g-C₃N₄/In₂O₃ catalysts for CO₂ photoreduction to CO and clarified the main factors that impact the photocatalytic performance. Finally, we explored photothermal synergic CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol on designed Au/In₂O₃ catalysts. These studies have obtained a deep understanding of CO₂ activation and conversion.