Photomethanation of Gaseous CO2 over Ru/Silicon Nanowire Catalysts with Visible and Near-Infrared Photons

Paul G O'Brien; Amit Sandhel; Thomas E Wood; Abdinoor A Jelle; Laura B Hoch; Doug D Perovic; Charles A Mims; Geoffrey A Ozin

doi:10.1002/advs.201400001

Photomethanation of Gaseous CO₂ over Ru/Silicon Nanowire Catalysts with Visible and Near-Infrared Photons

Adv Sci (Weinh). 2014 Nov 25;1(1):1400001. doi: 10.1002/advs.201400001. eCollection 2014 Dec.

Authors

Paul G O'Brien¹, Amit Sandhel¹, Thomas E Wood², Abdinoor A Jelle³, Laura B Hoch¹, Doug D Perovic³, Charles A Mims², Geoffrey A Ozin¹

Affiliations

¹ Materials Chemistry Research Group, Department of Chemistry University of Toronto 80 St. George Street Toronto Ontario M5S 3H6 Canada.
² Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry University of Toronto Ontario 200 College St. Toronto M5S 3E5 Canada.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of Toronto 184 College Street. Toronto Ontario M5S 3E4 Canada.

Abstract

Gaseous CO₂ is transformed photochemically and thermochemically in the presence of H₂ to CH₄ at millimole per hour per gram of catalyst conversion rates, using visible and near-infrared photons. The catalyst used to drive this reaction comprises black silicon nanowire supported ruthenium. These results represent a step towards engineering broadband solar fuels tandem photothermal reactors that enable a three-step process involving i) CO₂ capture, ii) gaseous water splitting into H₂, and iii) reduction of gaseous CO2 by H₂.

Keywords: photocatalysis; photochemical catalysis; silicon nanowires; solar fuels; thermochemical catalysis.