Defective heterojunctions in CO2 photoreduction: Enabling ultrafast interfacial charge transfer and selective methanation

Ruthenium supported on zirconia–carbon nanocomposites derived by using UiO-66 for efficient photothermal catalytic CO2 reduction

“…Meanwhile, the oxygen vacancies promoted the formation of ultrafast charge carrier transport channels and facilitated the transfer of photoexcited charges to the surface, thus enhancing the high redox capacity in the catalytic reaction. 58 In this study, we analyzed EPR signals before and after loading Ru on the support and found that ZrO 2 /C obtained by calcination under inert gas conditions had more abundant oxygen vacancies than ZrO 2 obtained by calcination in air. ZrO 2 /C has significantly more oxygen vacancies than ZrO 2 , and the introduction of Ru decreases the oxygen vacancies, probably because the Ru atoms are tilted and anchored to the oxygen defects of ZrO 2− x .…”