A novel Ru/TiO2 hybrid nanocomposite catalyzed photoreduction of CO2 to methanol under visible light.

A novel in situ synthesized Ru(bpy)3/TiO2 hybrid nanocomposite is developed for the photoreduction of CO2 into methanol under visible light irradiation. The prepared composite was characterized by means of SEM, TEM, XRD, DT-TGA, XPS, UV-Vis and FT-IR techniques. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized hybrid catalyst was tested for the photoreduction of CO2 under visible light using triethylamine as a sacrificial donor. The methanol yield for the Ru(bpy)3/TiO2 hybrid nanocomposite was found to be 1876 μmol g(-1) cat (ϕMeOH 0.024 mol Einstein(-1)) that was much higher in comparison with the in situ synthesized TiO2, 828 μmol g(-1) cat (ϕMeOH 0.010 mol Einstein(-1)) and the homogeneous Ru(bpy)3Cl2 complex, 385 μmol g(-1) cat (ϕMeOH 0.005 mol Einstein(-1)).