Ultrathin WO3·0.33H2O Nanotubes for CO2 Photoreduction to Acetate with High Selectivity

• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b03316
• Publication Date: 2018-04-30T12:16:18Z
• Authors: Songmei Sun; Motonori Watanabe; Ji Wu; Qi An; Tatsumi Ishihara
• Keywords: 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

Artificial photosynthesis from CO2 reduction is severely hampered by the kinetically challenging multi-electron reaction process. Oxygen vacancies (Vo) with abundant localized electrons have great potential to overcome this limitation. However, surface Vo usually low concentrations and are easily oxidized, causing them lose their activities. For practical application of photoreduction, fabricating enhancing stability on semiconductors indispensable. Here we report first synthesis ultrathin WO3·0.33H2O nanotubes a large amount exposed sites, which can realize excellent stable photoreduction CH3COOH in pure water under solar light. The selectivity for acetum generation up 85%, an average productivity about 9.4 μmol g-1 h-1. More importantly, catalyst sustainable, concentration was not decreased even after 60 h reaction. Quantum chemical calculations situ DRIFT studies revealed that main pathway might be → •COOH (COOH)2 CH3COOH.