@inproceedings{478a8a381f2144d4aedadca96bcb61af,
title = "Catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to methanol and higher order alcohols at a photoelectrochemical interface",
abstract = "There is increasing interest in photochemical schemes for converting CO2 into a useful product as a means of mitigating atmospheric levels of this gas. Although photoelectrochemical schemes have been considered for this application, typically very high overpotentials are observed, and thus, semiconductor-electrolyte interfaces have not been observed to actually convert light energy to chemical energy in the aqueous CO2 redox system. We report here on a catalytic system that efficiently converts CO2 to methanol and other alcohols. The system couples a III-V p-type semiconductor electrode with a pyridinium catalyst. The conversion of CO2 to alcohols can be driven solely with light to yield faradaic efficiencies approaching 100% at potentials well below the thermodynamic potential. Mechanistic studies on the formation of methanol indicate that the observed six-electron reduction occurs via a series of one electron reductions mediated by pyridinium.",
keywords = "CO mitigation, Electrocatalysis, III-V semiconductors, Photoelectrochemistry",
author = "Kate Keets and Amanda Morris and Elizabeth Zeitler and Prasad Lakkaraju and Andrew Bocarsly",
year = "2010",
doi = "10.1117/12.860024",
language = "English (US)",
isbn = "9780819482662",
series = "Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering",
booktitle = "Solar Hydrogen and Nanotechnology V",
note = "Solar Hydrogen and Nanotechnology V ; Conference date: 03-08-2010 Through 05-08-2010",
}