A sustainable paradigm for syngas production via photocatalytic CO 2 reduction.

The reductive tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle is an important central biosynthetic pathway that fixes CO2 into carboxylic acids. Among the five reductive steps in the rTCA cycle, the two-electron reduction of fumarate to succinate proceeds nonenzymatically on the surface of photoexcited sphalerite (ZnS) colloids suspended in water. This model reaction is chosen to systematically study the surfa...

Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4, short BVO) is a promising photoelectrochemically active candidate for water splitting used for hydrogen generation. Compared to TiO2, i.e. the most widely used and investigated photocatalyst, BVO uses visible instead of ultraviolet light for its photoelectrochmical activity. Amongst the three polymorphs of BVO, the monoclinic clinobisvanite BVO (m-BVO) phase exhibits th...

We developed new cyclic Re(I)-based trinuclear redox photosensitizers with both high oxidation power in the excited state and strong reduction power in the reduced form. These excellent properties were achieved by introducing electron-donating groups on the diimine ligand of the Re(I) metal centre and by connecting each Re(I) unit with polyphenyl–bisphosphine bridging ligands. These Re-rings we...

The use of metal co-catalysts broadens the application of photocatalytic reduction without the use of dihydrogen (H2) gas. We examined photocatalytic hydrogenation of furan, a representative heterocyclic compound and a compound derived from biomass, in alcoholic suspensions of metal-loaded titanium(iv) oxide (TiO2) under a H2-free condition and we found that furan was almost quantitatively hydr...

A straightforward approach is developed for fabrication of a visible-light-driven Ag/g-C3N4 catalyst. Morphological observation shows that the g-C3N4 sheets are decorated with highly dispersed Ag nanoparticles having an average size of 5.6 nm. The photocatalytic activity measurements demonstrate that the photocatalytic degradation rates of methyl orange (MO), methylene blue (MB), and neutral da...

The rate of electron transfer is critical in determining the efficiency of photoenergy conversion systems and is controlled by changing the relative energy gap of components, their geometries, or surroundings. However, the rate of electron transfer has not been controlled by the remote input of an external field without changing the geometries or materials of the systems. We demonstrate here th...

A strategy of reaction-environment modulation was employed to change the surface property of a semiconductor photocatalyst to enhance its photocatalytic performance. Surface alkalinization induced by a high alkalinity of the solution environment significantly shifted the surface energy band of a SrTiO(3) photocatalyst to a more negative level, supplying a strong potential for H(2)O reduction an...

ZnO nanorod arrays were synthesized by chemical bath deposition. After heat treatment in hydrogen or air, Ag nanoparticles were deposited on ZnO nanorod arrays by photo-reduction method. The size of Ag nanoparticles as well as the surface morphology, structure, composition, and optical property of ZnO nanorod arrays before and after the deposition of Ag nanoparticles were characterized by SEM, ...