Visible Light Driven Carbon Dioxide Conversion into Methanol Using Metal Doped Titanium Dioxide

Increasing energy crisis and declining climate caused by the excessive utilization of fossil fuel have increase exponentially on the research activities about Carbon Dioxide (CO2) capture, storage and utilization. Artificial photosynthesis that uses Ultraviolet light (UV-light) and solar light energy to convert CO2 to form value added chemical and renewable fuels such as methanol and methane has drawn the attention worldwide. It not only reduces the greenhouse effects caused by CO2 emission but as well produce value added chemicals for renewable energy. Titanium dioxide, (TiO2) nanoparticles were synthesized using Triton X-100 as surfactant. Copper (Cu) was doped into the TiO2 nanoparticles via wet impregnation method in order for the photocatalyst to absorb the light from UV region to visible region. In this experiment, 0-5wt% Cu was used to determine the optimum amount of Cu with 40ml of distilled water. From the result, 3wt% Cu/TiO2 shows significant result on the formation of methanol which give 2.574 ml. This report provides a brief information about the principles of artificial photosynthesis of CO2, method and materials needed for preparing the photocatalyst as well as the progress in exploring more efficient photocatalyst for the photoreduction process.