Integrable utilization of intermittent sunlight and residual heat for on-demand CO2 conversion with water

Xianjin Shi, Wei Peng, Yu Huang (), Chao Gao, Yiman Fu, Zhenyu Wang, Leting Yang, Zixuan Zhu, Junji Cao (), Fei Rao, Gangqiang Zhu, Shuncheng Lee and Yujie Xiong ()
Additional contact information
Xianjin Shi: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wei Peng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yu Huang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chao Gao: University of Science and Technology of China
Yiman Fu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhenyu Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Leting Yang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zixuan Zhu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Junji Cao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Fei Rao: Shaanxi Normal University
Gangqiang Zhu: Shaanxi Normal University
Shuncheng Lee: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
Yujie Xiong: University of Science and Technology of China

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Abundant residual heat from industrial emissions may provide energy resource for CO2 conversion, which relies on H2 gas and cannot be accomplished at low temperatures. Here, we report an approach to store electrons and hydrogen atoms in catalysts using sunlight and water, which can be released for CO2 reduction in dark at relatively low temperatures (150−300 °C), enabling on-demand CO2 conversion. As a proof of concept, a model catalyst is developed by loading single Cu sites on hexagonal tungsten trioxide (Cu/WO3). Under light illumination, hydrogen atoms are generated through photocatalytic water splitting and stored together with electrons in Cu/WO3, forming a metastable intermediate (Cu/HxWO3). Subsequent activation of Cu/HxWO3 through low-temperature heating releases the stored electrons and hydrogen atoms, reducing CO2 into valuable products. Furthermore, we demonstrate the practical feasibility of utilizing natural sunlight to drive the process, opening an avenue for harnessing intermittent solar energy for CO2 utilization.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54587-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-54587-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54587-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().