Controllable ZnO nanorod arrays@carbon fibers composites: Towards advanced CO2 photocatalytic reduction catalysts

Abstract In recent years, the development of efficient artificial photocatalysts for CO2 reduction has attracted much attention; however, the product selectivity, catalyst stability and catalytic activity are far from the requirements for commercial consideration. Herein, we design and synthesis of ZnO nanorod arrays@carbon fiber (ZnO NA@CF) composites via an in situ controlled growth process. The as-prepared (ZnO NA@CF) composites exhibit exceedingly high activity and excellent selectivity in the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CH3OH (the maximum CH3OH yield is 430.2 μmol  g cat . - 1 for 3.0 h under UV light irradiation, which is 7.15 times as high as that on pure ZnO) as a result of the improved electron-hole pair separation rate on ZnO NA@CF interface, as well as high light harvesting effects derived from the NA@CF hierarchical structure.

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