Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 coupled with selective alcohol oxidation under ambient conditions

Abstract

A new method for the reduction of CO₂ to CH₃OH coupled with selective alcohol oxidation using a photocatalytic method has been developed in the present paper. CO₂ as the oxidant was reduced to methanol by photo-induced electrons, and aromatic alcohols were used as the reductants to react with photo-generated holes and were converted to aromatic aldehydes with high selectivity. The maximum conversion of aromatic alcohol to aldehyde was 91.7% with a selectivity of 98%, and the highest yield of methanol was 358.7 μmol g⁻¹. This study could provide a valuable method not only for carbon dioxide conversion into fuel which could remission energy shortages, but also for the selective oxidation of alcohols to produce aldehydes.