Nanostructured photocatalysts and doped wide-bandgap semiconductors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016193595-A1
Application number	US-201414902725-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 1, 2014
Priority date	Jul 1, 2013
Publication date	Jul 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Photocatalysts for reduction of carbon dioxide and water are provided that can be tuned to produce certain reaction products, including hydrogen, alcohol, aldehyde, and/or hydrocarbon products. These photocatalysts can form artificial photosystems and can be incorporated into devices that reduce carbon dioxide and water for production of various fuels. Doped wide-bandgap semiconductor nanotubes are provided along with synthesis methods. A variety of optical, electronic and magnetic dopants (substitutional and interstitial, energetically shallow and deep) are incorporated into hollow nanotubes, ranging from a few dopants to heavily-doped semiconductors. The resulting wide-bandgap nanotubes, with desired electronic (p- or n-doped), optical (ultraviolet bandgap to infrared absorption in co-doped nanotubes), and magnetic (from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic) properties, can be used in photovoltaics, display technologies, photocatalysis, and spintronic applications.

First claim

1 . A catalyst for reduction of carbon dioxide and water comprising:
nanostructured titanium dioxide; and one of (a) copper oxide nanoparticles, (b) copper indium sulfide nanoparticles, (c) molybdenum disulfide nanosheets, and (d) cadmium sulfide nanoparticles.

2 . The catalyst of claim 1 , wherein the nanostructured titanium dioxide is in the form of nanoparticles.

3 . The catalyst of claim 2 , wherein the titanium dioxide nanoparticles have a diameter of about 10 nm to about 15 nm.

4 . The catalyst of claim 1 , wherein the copper oxide nanoparticles comprise Cu 2-x O, where 0<x<1.

5 . The catalyst of claim 1 , wherein the copper oxide nanoparticles are grown on a surface of the nanostructured titanium dioxide.

6 . The catalyst of claim 1 , wherein the copper indium sulfide nanoparticles are attached to a surface of the nanostructured titanium dioxide.

7 . The catalyst of claim 6 , wherein a loading of copper indium sulfide is about 14%.

8 . The catalyst of claim 6 , wherein the nanostructured titanium dioxide is comprised by nanoparticles and about three quantum dots of copper indium sulfide are attached per titanium dioxide nanoparticle.

9 . The catalyst of claim 1 , wherein the copper indium sulfide nanoparticles have a diameter of about 3 nm to about 5 Mil.

10 . The catalyst of claim 1 , wherein the nanostructured titanium dioxide is in the form of nanotubes.

11 . The catalyst of claim 10 , wherein the titanium dioxide nanotubes are doped with nitrogen.

12 . The catalyst of claim 10 , wherein the titanium dioxide nanotubes are coated by the copper indium sulfide nanoparticles.

13 . The catalyst of claim 12 , wherein the copper indium sulfide nanoparticles have a diameter of about 3 nm to about 5 nm.

14 . The catalyst of claim 10 , wherein the titanium dioxide nanotubes are coated by the molybdenum disulfide nanosheets.

15 . The catalyst of claim 14 , wherein the molybdenum disulfide nanosheets are substantially two-dimensional nanostructures having a thickness from about 1 nm to about 100 nm.

16 . The catalyst of claim 10 , wherein the titanium dioxide nanotubes are coated by the cadmium sulfide nanoparticles.

17 . The catalyst of claim 16 , wherein the cadmium sulfide nanoparticles have a diameter of about 3 nm to about 5 nm.

18 . A catalyst for reduction of carbon dioxide and water comprising:
nanostructured cadmium sulfide.

19 . The catalyst of claim 18 , wherein the nanostructured cadmium sulfide is comprised by nanorods.

20 . The catalyst of claim 19 , wherein the nanorods have a length of at least about 20 nm.

21 . The catalyst of claim 19 , wherein the cadmium sulfide nanorods have a quantum confined bandgap of about 2.68 eV and bandedge photoluminescence of about 2.62 eV.

22 . The catalyst of claim 19 , wherein the cadmium sulfide nanorods comprise a metal-hybrid.

23 . The catalyst of claim 22 , wherein the metal comprises one of silver and gold.

24 . The catalyst of claim 22 , wherein the metal-hybrid is grown at an end of the cadmium sulfide nanorods.

25 . The catalyst of claim 18 , wherein the nanostructured cadmium sulfide is comprised by nanoparticles.

26 . The catalyst of claim 15 , wherein the cadmium sulfide nanoparticles have a diameter of about 3 nm to about 8 nm.

27 . The catalyst of claim 18 , wherein at least a portion of a surface of the nanostructured cadmium sulfide is coated with zinc selenide.

28 - 77 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Nagpal Prashant
• Singh Vivek
• Castellanos Beltran Ignacio
• Alivov Yahya
• Ding Yuchen
• Cerkovnik Logan Jerome
• Univ Colorado Regents

Inventors

• Nagpal Prashant
• Singh Vivek
• Castellanos Beltran Ignacio
• Alivov Yahya
• Ding Yuchen
• Cerkovnik Logan Jerome

Classifications

• B01J27/047

  with chromium, molybdenum, tungsten or polonium · CPC title

• B01J23/72

  Copper · CPC title

• C01P2004/16

  Nanowires or nanorods, i.e. solid nanofibres with two nearly equal dimensions between 1-100 nanometer · CPC title

• C01G11/02

  Sulfides · CPC title

• B01J27/04

  Sulfides · CPC title