In the 21st century, the world still predominantly depends on the consumption of fossil fuels to power industry, automobiles, domestic essentials, etc., thus the increasing levels of CO2 bi-product poses deleterious perturbations on air quality and on global climate patterns. A scheme that incorporates anatase TiO2, a relatively inexpensive material, and utilizes Au nanoparticles (NPs) to focus naturally occuring solar radiation provides an attractive mechanism to combat this issue through CO2, reduction. Visibly photoexcited doped anatase TiO2 surfaces have previously been shown to cause oxidation of small organic molecules interacting at the TiO2-vacuum interface due to the introduction of defect states in the bandgap region. Using the same principles, anatase TiO2 surface defects may allow for visible light to cause transitions into excited states which are coupled to charge transfer (CT) states with C02, initiating reduction instead of oxidation. Formulation of a systematic approach to analyze the effects of surface defects and their influence on reduction mechanisms, with accuracy and minimal computational cost, is crucial in the exploration of potential targets for efficient CO2 reduction.

Surface TiO2 mediated catalysis: A potential target for greenhouse gas reduction

250th National Meeting (2015)

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