Photocatalytic H2 generation and CO2 reduction by WB5-x cocatalyst of TiO2 catalyst

Catalytic reactions play an important role in modern industry as almost 90 % of all chemical industry is based on catalytic reactions. Development of new more effective catalysts will allow significant advances in chemical production, but nevertheless remains a rather challenging problem for materials scientists. We proposed and studied here a new composite photocatalyst based on WB5-x-WB2 and TiO2 for H2 evolution from ethanol aqueous solution and CO2 reduction under visible light irradiation (410 nm). New composite photocatalysts WB5-x-WB2/TiO2 were synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV–vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy techniques. Photocatalytic measurements show maximum activity of composite photocatalyst 4 and 23 times higher than the activity of unmodified TiO2 in CO2 reduction and H2 evolution, respectively. Density functional calculations of the proposed reaction agree with provided experiments confirming the higher efficiency of the modified catalyst compared to TiO2.