TY - JOUR A1 - Mohan, Abhinav A1 - Ulmer, Ulrich A1 - Hurtado, Lourdes A1 - Loh, Joel A1 - Li, Young Feng A1 - Tountas, Athanasios A. A1 - Krevert, Carola A1 - Chan, Chakyu A1 - Liang, Yilei A1 - Brodersen, Peter A1 - Sain, Mohini M. A1 - Ozin, Geoffrey A. T1 - Hybrid Photo- and Thermal Catalyst System for Continuous CO2 Reduction JF - ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces N2 - Heterogeneous thermal catalytic processes are vital for industrial production of fuels, fertilizers, and other chemicals necessary for sustaining human life. However, these processes are highly energy-intensive, requiring a vast consumption of fossil fuels. An emerging class of heterogeneous catalysts that are thermally driven but also exhibit a photochemically enhanced rate can potentially reduce process energy intensity by partially substituting conventional heat (where fossil fuels are needed) with solar energy. Such catalyst systems have yet to be practically utilized. Here, we demonstrate a compact electrically heated photo- and thermal annular reactor module to reduce CO2 to CO, via the reverse water gas shift reaction. A first-principles-based design approach was taken in developing a SiO2 on an Al photo- and thermal catalyst system for the model photo- and thermal indium oxide hydroxide (In2O3–x(OH)y) catalysts. A 5-fold light enhancement in the CO production rate and over 70 h of stable CO production were achieved. This represents the highest light enhancement effect reported for this model photocatalyst to date. The reactor presented herein allows continuous operation and a significant reduction of 31% in heater power consumption when provided with an additional 2 suns of irradiation, demonstrating the strong photo- and thermal-harvesting performances of the catalyst system developed in this work. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c06232 SN - 1944-8244 VL - 12 IS - 30 SP - 33613 EP - 33620 PB - American Chemical Society (ACS) ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hurtado, Lourdes A1 - Mohan, Abhinav A1 - Ulmer, Ulrich A1 - Natividad, Reyna A1 - Tountas, Athanasios A. A1 - Sun, Wei A1 - Wang, Lu A1 - Kim, Boeun A1 - Sain, Mohini M. A1 - Ozin, Geoffrey A. T1 - Solar CO2hydrogenation by photocatalytic foams JF - Chemical Engineering Journal N2 - Here we report the enhanced light penetration and mass transfer efficiency of photocatalytic foams to convert CO2 to CO. The viability of utilizing a metallic foam as a model photocatalyst support is used to evaluate the photochemical and thermochemical reverse water gas shift reaction catalyzed by photoactive indium oxide hydroxide nanorods uniformly coated on nickel foams. A light-enhanced CO production rate up to 130% higher than the dark CO production was achieved through enhanced light penetration. A remarkably high thermo- chemical CO production rate of 0.75 mmol gcat 1 h 1 was achieved at 295 ◦C. Whilst several approaches to optimization of photocatalyst morphology at the nanoscale have been successful in extending electron hole-pair lifetime and modifying the site of reactions, these advantages cannot be significantly realized unless microscale to macroscale structuring efforts, that shorten the path length for diffusion of the reactant gas molecule and lengthen photon penetration to these catalytic sites are integrated. The superior catalytic performance of the indium oxide hydroxide nanorods on an optimized coated foam configuration compared to the performance of packed bed and thin film configurations demonstrates the critical importance of using structured supports in scale up of future photocatalytic processes. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.134864 SN - 1385-8947 VL - 435 PB - Elsevier BV ER -