Xie, B;
Wong, RJ;
Tan, TH;
Higham, M;
Gibson, EK;
Decarolis, D;
Callison, J;
... Amal, R; + view all
(2020)
Synergistic ultraviolet and visible light photo-activation enables intensified low-temperature methanol synthesis over copper/zinc oxide/alumina.
Nature Communications
, 11
(1)
, Article 1615. 10.1038/s41467-020-15445-z.
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Abstract
Although photoexcitation has been employed to unlock the low-temperature equilibrium regimes of thermal catalysis, mechanism underlining potential interplay between electron excitations and surface chemical processes remains elusive. Here, we report an associative zinc oxide band-gap excitation and copper plasmonic excitation that can cooperatively promote methanol-production at the copper-zinc oxide interfacial perimeter of copper/zinc oxide/alumina (CZA) catalyst. Conversely, selective excitation of individual components only leads to the promotion of carbon monoxide production. Accompanied by the variation in surface copper oxidation state and local electronic structure of zinc, electrons originating from the zinc oxide excitation and copper plasmonic excitation serve to activate surface adsorbates, catalysing key elementary processes (namely formate conversion and hydrogen molecule activation), thus providing one explanation for the observed photothermal activity. These observations give valuable insights into the key elementary processes occurring on the surface of the CZA catalyst under light-heat dual activation.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Synergistic ultraviolet and visible light photo-activation enables intensified low-temperature methanol synthesis over copper/zinc oxide/alumina |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-020-15445-z |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15445-z |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Chemistry |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10095335 |
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