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Synthesis and Characterization of CuO/TiO2 Photocatodes for the Photoelectrochemical Reduction of CO2

Wednesday, 3 October 2018
Universal Ballroom (Expo Center)
M. D. L. A. Reyes, C. A. Aguilar Ucán (UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DEL CARMEN), E. Ramirez Morales (Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco), J. M. Sierra Grajeda, and S. J. Figueroa Ramirez (UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DEL CARMEN)
The carbon dioxide is a very strong and stable molecule, product of fossil fuel combustion and it’s a primary greenhouse gases, currently various studies of de conversion of CO2 to usefull products have been conducted. However, for break the C=O bonds, requires a large external energy. The photoelectrochemical systems have been studied to use the light as the input energy for approach to overcome the high energy barrier of CO2 conversion in to chemicals and fuels in a environment-friendly manner.In this work we report the study of a photocathode material for fuel generation from CO2 reduction in a photoelectrochemical system, nanocompiste thin films of CuO/TiO2 with various concentration of CuO (1%,3%,5%) were prepared with a dip coating and a thermal treatment. The absorption regions, the band gap (Eg), the Anastasa phase, the crystal size and the topography of the surface were identified, using UV-vis spectrophotometry, Raman spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) techniques, respectively. It was observed that depending on the percentage of CuO, the Eg of the material decreases from 3.33eV to 3.25eV and increases the absorption in the visible region, this would indicate that less energy is required to activate the surface of the material and to perform the photo-reduction of CO2. And were evaluated in photoelectrochemical cell, with a KHCO3 media, the cyclic voltamperometry reported a catodic peak associated to reduction of CO2 in a -0.57 V vs (SCE) without illumination and a decrease to -0.37 V vs (SCE) whit illumination, this means that the material requires less energy supply for the reduction of CO2 in the presence of light.