Inducing Cu2+ species to SrTiO3 nanofibers based on blend electrospinning for boosting CO2 photoreduction to CH3OH

Photocatalytic CO 2 reduction presents a promising strategy to alleviate environmental issues caused by massive CO 2 emissions. SrTiO 3 , a potential photocatalyst for photocatalytic CO 2 reactions, is limited by poor photoresponsivity and fast photogenerated carrier recombination. In this work, a series of Cu 2+ species modified SrTiO 3 nanofibers (xCuO/STO) was prepared combining sol-gel method and electrospinning with different copper content. The CH 3 OH yield of the 0.08CuO/STO photocatalyst reached up to 5.75 ± 0.27 μmol g −1  h −1 , which was 2.2 times higher than that of pure SrTiO 3 . It was attributed that the blend electrospinning promoted Cu 2+ species to be well dispersed on the surface of the SrTiO 3 nanofibers. The strategy effectively enhanced the light absorption of the photocatalyst and inhibited the recombination of the photogenerated carriers. Part of appropriate characterizations were employed to elucidate the above point. In addition, to explore the inherent mechanism between the two species, the Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were further applied in the inherent mechanism between the species. This work provided a blend electrospinning approach for designing cocatalyst-modified SrTiO 3 nanofibers for photocatalytic reduction of CO 2 .