Photochemical H 2 dissociation for nearly quantitative CO 2 reduction to ethylene
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Producing olefins by carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) hydrogenation is a long-standing goal. The usual products are multicarbon mixtures because the critical step of heterolytic hydrogen (H 2 ) dissociation at high temperatures complicates selectivity control. In this study, we report that irradiating gold–titanium dioxide at 365 nanometers induces heterolytic H 2 dissociation at ambient temperature. This process likely relies on interfacial electric dipoles from photogenerated electrons and holes situated on the metallic gold nanoparticles and interfacial gold–oxygen–titanium scaffolds. The heterolytic H 2 dissociation is further promoted by light-induced coating of gold nanoparticles with a titanium oxide layer. The resulting nucleophilic hydrogen species reduce CO 2 to ethane in >99% yield under light irradiation in a flow apparatus. Furthermore, cascading with a subsequent photocatalytic ethane dehydrogenation generates ethylene in >99% yield over 1500 hours of irradiation.
Source: Science
Authors: Ping Jin, Pu Guo, Nengchao Luo, Hui Zhang, Chenwei Ni, Ruotian Chen, Wei Liu, Rengui Li, Jianping Xiao, Guoxiong Wang, Fuxiang Zhang, Paolo Fornasiero, Feng Wang
Institutions: Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Fudan University, University of Trieste
Language: English
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4414003902