Photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to fuel using hydrothermally synthesized titania nanotubes

Photoinduced reactions on titania has received considerable attention due to their potential applications in dye sensitized solar cells, photosplitting of water to hydrogen, photo catalytic self-cleaning surfaces and photocatalytic reduction reactions. The objective of the present work is to explore the effect of structure and morphology on the reduction of carbon dioxide to fuel photocatalyzed with titania nanotube synthesized by hydrothermal method. The hydrothermal synthesis resulted in titania nanotubes which were 50-300 nm long with a diameter of 8 to 12 nm. The effects of treatment temperatures on the morphologies of titania nanotubes were investigated using scanning electron and transmission electron microscopes. It is found that the photo catalytic property is highly dependant on the morphology and pore structure of titania nanotubes. Further, these titania nanotubes are activated with platinum to increase the photoreduction rate of carbon dioxide in both UV and visible region which leads to the possible application of these catalysts in the solar light.