Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 using nanostructured Cu2O with foam-like structure

Abstract The possibility of obtaining foam-like copper (I) oxide and the process of carbon dioxide photocatalytic reduction under its participation were studied. It was shown that this material had a high photocatalytic activity in gas phase CO 2 reduction with water vapor to acetaldehyde (up to 8.2 μmole·g cat −1 ·h −1 ) and methane (up to 19.2 μmole·g cat −1 ·h −1 ). A similar effect can be explained both by the formation of nanocrystalline Cu 2 O and the spatial organization of such components into the foam-like three-dimensional (3D) material. Based on the distribution of the final products conclusions about the possible mechanism of CO 2 conversion during a transition from an irradiation with the full spectrum of a lamp to UV and visible light were made.