Design and fabrication of nanoarchitectures of rGO-decorated ZnCo2O4 hybrid photocatalyst for high-efficiency solar fuel generation
摘要
Photocatalytic CO2 reduction for solar fuel production has garnered significant attention due to its potential to address both the energy crisis and CO2 pollution. In this study, ZnCo2O4-rGO hybrid catalyst, specifically ZnCO2O4/10% rGO and ZnCo2O4/20%rGO, were designed by ultrasonic-assisted hydrothermal method for photocatalytic CO2 reduction to address energy and environmental challenges. We evaluated the photocatalytic reduction ability of CO2 to methanol and observed that incorporating rGO significantly reduced the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, thereby enhancing the photocatalytic activity of ZnCo2O4. Among the synthesized photocatalysts, ZnCo2O4 with 20% rGO exhibited the highest photocatalytic performance, attributed to its narrow band gap and efficient charge mobility. The ZnCo2O4/20%rGO heterogeneous photocatalyst maintaining its effectiveness through five consecutive reaction cycles without observable degradation in catalytic activity. 13CO2 isotopic experiment validated that the produced methanol was from the photoreduction of CO2. This result demonstrates that after 10 h of irradiation, the yield of methanol was 145 µmol/g, which is significantly higher than that obtained with pristine ZnCo2O4 (66.2 µmol/g) and previously-reported photocatalysts. This underscores that ZnCo2O4/20% rGO is a simple, efficient, and promising visible-light-driven photocatalyst for the photoreduction of CO2 into solar fuels.