Heterostructured nanocomposite tin phthalocyanine@mesoporous ceria (SnPc@CeO2) for photoreduction of CO2 in visible light

Heterostructured tin phthalocyanine supported to mesoporous ceria was synthesized and used a photocatalyst for CO2 reduction under visible light. The photoreduction CO2 activities of the heterostructures were investigated in the presence of triethylamine as sacrificial agent. The developed photocatalyst exhibited high catalytic activity for photoreduction of CO2 and after 24 hours of visible light irradiation 2342 μmol g−1 cat of methanol (ϕMeOH = 0.0223 or 2.23%) and 840 μmol g−1 cat of CO (ϕCO = 0.0026 or 0.26%) were obtained as the major reaction products. The methanol formation rate (RMeOH) and CO formation rate (RCO) was found to be 97.5 μmol h−1 g−1 cat and 35.0 μmol h−1 g−1 cat respectively. While under the identical experimental conditions mesoporous ceria (meso-CeO2) gave only 316 μmol g−1 cat of methanol (ϕMeOH = 0.003 or 0.30%) and 126 μmol g−1 cat CO (ϕCO = 0.0004 or 0.04%) with product formation rate RMeOH = 13.2 μmol h−1 g−1 cat and RCO = 5.3 μmol h−1 g−1 cat. Furthermore, the recovered catalyst showed consistent catalytic activity for at least five runs without any significant loss in product yields.