Issue 38, 2019

Systematic study of TiO2/ZnO mixed metal oxides for CO2 photoreduction

Abstract

A two component three degree simplex lattice experimental design was employed to evaluate the impact of different mixing fractions of TiO2 and ZnO on an ordered mesoporous SBA-15 support for CO2 photoreduction. It was anticipated that the combined advantages of TiO2 and ZnO: low cost, non-toxicity and combined electronic properties would facilitate CO2 photoreduction. The fraction of ZnO had a statistically dominant impact on maximum CO2 adsorption (β2 = 22.65, p-value = 1.39 × 10−4). The fraction of TiO2 used had a statistically significant positive impact on CO (β1 = 9.71, p-value = 2.93 × 10−4) and CH4 (β1 = 1.43, p-value = 1.35 × 10−3) cumulative production. A negative impact, from the interaction term between the fractions of TiO2 and ZnO, was found for CH4 cumulative production (β3 = −2.64, p-value = 2.30 × 10−2). The systematic study provided evidence for the possible loss in CO2 photoreduction activity from sulphate groups introduced during the synthesis of ZnO. The decrease in activity is attributed to the presence of sulphate species in the ZnO prepared, which may possibly act as charge carrier and/or radical intermediate scavengers.

Graphical abstract: Systematic study of TiO2/ZnO mixed metal oxides for CO2 photoreduction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 maj 2019
Accepted
01 jul 2019
First published
12 jul 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 21660-21666

Systematic study of TiO2/ZnO mixed metal oxides for CO2 photoreduction

W. A. Thompson, A. Olivo, D. Zanardo, G. Cruciani, F. Menegazzo, M. Signoretto and M. M. Maroto-Valer, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 21660 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA03435H

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