Synthesis of Ni 2 P/CdS and Pt/TiO 2 nanocomposite for photoreduction of CO 2 into methanol

It is a great challenge to convert thermochemically stable CO 2 into value-added products such as CH 4 , CH 3 OH, CO via utilizing solar energy. It is also a difficult task to develop an efficient catalyst for the reduction of CO 2 . We have designed and synthesized noble metal-free photocatalytic nanostructure Ni 2 P/CdS and Pt/TiO 2 for conversion of CO 2 to methanol in the presence of sacrificial donor triethylamine (TEA) and hydrogen peroxide. The synthesised catalysts physicochemical properties were studied by using several spectroscopic techniques like; XRD, UV-DRS, XPS, TEM, SEM and PL. Quantification of methanol by GC–MS showed encouraging results of 1424.8 and 2843 μmol g −1 of catalyst for Pt/TiO 2 and 5 wt% Ni 2 P/CdS composites, respectively. Thus, Ni 2 P/CdS is a promising catalyst with higher productivity and significant selectivity than in-vogue catalysts.