Water Oxidation and CO2 Reduction Catalyst for Artificial Photosynthesis

Photocatalytic or photoelectrochemical processes that couple water oxidation and CO₂ reduction are currently under intense investigation for solar fuel production. As these so called “artificial photosynthesis (AP)” systems are expected to remediate the issue of ever increasing CO₂ level in the atmosphere, it is necessary to construct them using cheap and efficient materials for large scale deployment. The importance of water oxidation and CO₂ reduction catalysis for AP has been well recognized in recent years, yet significant challenges still remain to find low cost materials that are both efficient and stable [1]. Towards the search for catalyst based on earth abundant materials, we previously investigated transition metal tungstates as water oxidation catalysts [2] and nickel macrocycles for CO₂ reduction [3]. In this work, perovskites-type of metal oxides is further studied to improve catalyst performance at neutral pH as oxygen evolution catalyst. We also report a new strategy of ligand modification to silver surface, which allows the control of product selectivity for electrochemical CO₂ reduction. Details about materials synthesis, characterization of physiochemical properties and evaluation of catalytic performance will be discussed in this presentation, as well as studies on catalyst stability and the influences of electrolytes.

(1)  J. R. McKone, N. S. Lewis and H. B. Gray, Chem. Mater., 2013 ASAP

(2)  H. Jia, J. Stark, L. Q. Zhou, C. Ling, T. Sekito, Z. Markin.  RSC Adv. 2012, 2(29), 10874-10881

(3)  J. Schneider, H. Jia, K. Kobiro, et al. Energy Environ. Sci. 2012, 5, 9502-9510.