TiO 2 nanorod array@carbon cloth photocatalyst for CO 2 reduction

Abstract In recent years, 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 synthesize TiO2 nanorod array@carbon cloth (TiO2 NA@CC) flexible integration photocatalyst via a fast and catalyst-free hydrothermal route. The as-prepared TiO2 NA@CC photocatalyst exhibits exceedingly high activity and excellent selectivity in the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CH3OH (the maximum CH3OH yield is 721 μmol g c a t . − 1 for 3.0 h under UV light irradiation, which is 2.76 times as high as that on pure TiO2) as a result of the improved electron-hole pairs separation rate on TiO2 NA@CC interface, as well as high light harvesting effects derived from the nanorod and carbon hierarchical structure.