Direct growth of carbon nanotubes on Ni/TiO2 as next generation catalysts for photoreduction of CO2 to methane by water under visible light irradiation

Abstract

In this communication, we demonstrate for the first time that CNT@Ni/TiO₂ nanocomposites were active in the photoreduction of CO₂ into methane (CH₄) under visible light irradiation. The nanocomposites were synthesized via co-precipitation followed by chemical vapor deposition at 750 °C. Our results showed that the band gap of the nanocomposites was 2.22 eV, leading to high absorption of visible light. The photocatalytic results exhibited the highest CH₄ yield of 0.145 μmol g_catalyst⁻¹ h⁻¹ using CNT@Ni/TiO₂ nanocomposites compared with Ni/TiO₂ and pure anatase TiO₂ owing to the synergistic combination of the CNTs and TiO₂.