Enhanced Photoreduction Activity of Carbon Dioxide over Co3O4/CeO2 Catalysts under Visible Light Irradiation

Abstract

A series of new two semiconductor catalysts, Co3O4/CeO2, were prepared by glycine-nitrate combustion method for photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to produce methanol and ethanol under visible light (λ>400 nm) irradiation. The catalysts were characterized by BET, UV-vis spectra, XRD, SEM, PL, and XPS and the results indicated that the catalyst with 5 wt.% of Co3O4 has the highest yield among all kinds of tests with the methanol yield of 1.52 μmol·g−1·h−1 and the ethanol yield of 4.75 μmol·g−1·h−1, which are about 2.34 and 1.71 times as large as those of CeO2. However, methanol and ethanol can hardly be detected for Co3O4 under the same condition because of its too narrow band gap. The improvement of the photoreduction activity of Co3O4 doped CeO2 was caused by the separation of electron-hole pairs of Co3O4/CeO2 and charge transfer between Co3O4 and CeO2, mimicking the Z-scheme in photosynthesis.