Surface Stabilization of High-Pressure TiO2 Polymorph via High-Energy Ball Milling: Boosting Noble-Metal-Free CO2 Photoreduction
Abigail Mufari, Thiago Capelupi, Martin Saleta, Eugenia Zelaya, Octavio Furlong, Maria Valnice Boldrin Zanoni, Luis Eduardo Cadús, Juliana Ferreira de Brito, Sebastián Larrégola
TL;DR
High-energy ball milling creates a stable titanium dioxide structure that efficiently converts CO2 to methanol without noble metals.
Contribution
A novel method using high-energy ball milling to stabilize TiO2-II polymorph for CO2 photoreduction is introduced.
Findings
TiO2–II nanocrystallites anchored to anatase surfaces enhance CO2 photoreduction to CH3OH.
Defect-rich configurations provide high-affinity CO2 adsorption and activation sites.
HEBM restructures TiO2 under ambient conditions, mimicking high-pressure pathways.
Abstract
High-energy ball milling (HEBM) is employed to stabilize the high-pressure TiO2–II polymorph as nanocrystallites anchored to anatase surfaces, producing a controllable polymorphic mixture that markedly enhances CO2 photoreduction to CH3OH in aqueous media without noble metals or cocatalysts. The resulting architecture features TiO2–II intimately interfaced with strained anatase and a high density of extended defects (grain boundaries, phase interfaces, and dislocation terminations) hosting reactive surface species with modified electronic properties. This defect-rich configuration provides high-affinity CO2 adsorption and activation sites. Both bulk and surface are profoundly restructured under the extreme nonequilibrium conditions of HEBM, which reproduce high-pressure transformation pathways at ambient conditions. These results highlight a green, scalable strategy for defect and…
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Taxonomy
TopicsTiO2 Photocatalysis and Solar Cells · Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques · CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts