Developing nanocomposites for photochemical and electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide

Abstract

Recently, the environmental problems including global warming have emerged as a major issue in the human. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) have increased from 180 ppm in pre-industrial era to 400 ppm on 2017 by large consumption of fossil fuel. Also, the utilization of renewable energy source is attractive to solve the energy crisis and environmental problems instead of fossil fuel consumption. Thus, the conversion of carbon dioxide using renewable energy have attracted much interest to store the energy into valuable chemical and fuels. However, until now, the conversion efficiency using clean and sustainable energy source such as solar energy and electrical energy is insufficient due to extreme inertness of $CO_2$. In this thesis, we developed the heterogeneous catalyst by nanostructure control and hybrid of nanomaterials to improve the conversion rate and selectivity of photocatalytic and electrocatalytic reduction of $CO_2$. This study for nanomaterial design and catalytic conversion of $CO_2$ is expected to give an insight into the solar energy harvesting and $CO_2$ problem.