Potential of methanol production from the photoelectrochemical reduction of CO2 on rGO-CuO/Cu composite

In recent years, utilization technologies, such as photoelectrochemical reduction of CO2, have become promising for the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals. Green and clean products can also be obtained from CO2 molecule in a catalytic reaction using a suitable photoelectrocatalyst. This research identified the potential of a reduced graphene oxide-copper oxide/Cu foil (rGO-CuO/Cu) photoelectrode to produce methanol and examined the product using gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detection. Results of experimental measurements showed that the rGO-CuO/Cu photoelectrode in 3 hours of hydrothermal reaction exhibited an excellent photoelectrochemical performance by generating a photocurrent density of 9.6 mA cm−2 at -0.8 V vs. Ag/AgCl. Simultaneously, the high photocurrent density described the high production rate of valuable fuels or chemicals. A photoelectrocatalyst from a facile fabrication could potentially produce methanol from the reduction of CO2 with reference to the performance of the photocurrent generation. Therefore, a photoelectrocatalyst with high performance in photocurrent could become promising in CO2 reduction. This study demonstrated that rGO-CuO/Cu is a potential semiconductor-based photoelectrode to convert CO2 into methanol.