Efficient solar-driven CO2-to-fuel conversion via Ni/MgAlOx @SiO2 nanocomposites at low temperature

Xianglei Liu, Yueyue Ling, Chen Sun, Hang Shi, Hangbin Zheng, Chao Song, Ke Gao, Chunzhuo Dang, Nan Sun, Yimin Xuan*, Yulong Ding

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

Solar-driven CO2-to-fuel conversion assisted by another major greenhouse gas CH4 is promising to concurrently tackle energy shortage and global warming problems. However, current techniques still suffer from drawbacks of low efficiency, poor stability, and low selectivity. Here, a novel nanocomposite composed of interconnected Ni/MgAlOx nanoflakes grown on SiO2 particles with excellent spatial confinement of active sites is proposed for direct solar-driven CO2-to-fuel conversion. An ultrahigh light-to-fuel efficiency up to 35.7%, high production rates of H2 (136.6 mmol min−1g− 1) and CO (148.2 mmol min−1g−1), excellent selectivity (H2/CO ratio of 0.92), and good stability are reported simultaneously. These outstanding performances are attributed to strong metal-support interactions, improved CO2 absorption and activation, and decreased apparent activation energy under direct light illumination. MgAlOx @SiO2 support helps to lower the activation energy of CH* oxidation to CHO* and improve the dissociation of CH4 to CH3* as confirmed by DFT calculations. Moreover, the lattice oxygen of MgAlO x participates in the reaction and contributes to the removal of carbon deposition. This work provides promising routes for the conversion of greenhouse gasses into industrially valuable syngas with high efficiency, high selectivity, and benign sustainability.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)131-139
JournalFundamental Research
Volume4
Issue number1
Early online date29 Apr 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the Basic Science Center Program for Ordered Energy Conversion of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51888103), the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFF0500700) and Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation Project (BE2022024 and BK20202008).

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