The CO2 photoconversion over reduced graphene oxide based on Ag/TiO2 photocatalyst in an advanced meso-scale continuous-flow photochemical reactor

• Samar Nabil¹
• Ahmed S. Hammad²
• Haitham M. El-Bery³
• Elsayed A. Shalaby¹
• Ahmed H. El-Shazly^4,5

• ¹Department of Environmental Studies, Institute of Graduate Studies and Research, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21526, Egypt
• ²Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt
• ³Advanced Functional Materials Laboratory, Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, 71515, Egypt
• ⁴Chemical and Petrochemicals Engineering Department, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, Alexandria, 21934, Egypt
• ⁵Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21544, Egypt

This study aims at examining the use of an advanced meso-scale continuous-flow photochemical reactor for the photocatalytic conversion of CO2 with water into fuel over TiO2 (P25), Ag/TiO2, and Ag/TiO2/RGO catalysts. The silver loaded photocatalysts were prepared by one-step process via hydrothermal method. The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by various characterization techniques in order to identify the morphological, chemical, physical, and optical properties. The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared catalysts was firstly examined by the photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements and secondly by the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 in the proposed setup. Liquid products were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and total organic carbon (TOC) techniques. It was found that the ternary composite revealed an outstanding performance towards CO2 photocatalytic reduction, where its selectivity was directed towards methanol production. The incorporation of graphene nanosheets enhanced the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 by 3.3 and 9.4 times compared with Ag/TiO2 and bare TiO2, respectively, using the proposed photochemical reactor in a continuous mode. This study sheds the light on a novel type of a photocatalytic reactor where CO2 conversion over Ag/TiO2/RGO ternary composite was evaluated.

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