Hight selectivity of photocatalysis for CO2 conversion into hydrocarbons using potassium Ferrate/Sulfur-doped Graphitic-Carbon nitride as catalyst

Efficiently converting inexpensive, easily accessible, and bounteous single-carbon (C1) compounds into high- value multi-carbon (C2 + ) compounds has become a highly focused and challenging research field. In the absence of sacrificial agents, this study designed and synthesized potassium ferrate/sulfur-doped patterned carbon nitride (K2Fe2O4/SC3N4, referred to as KFO/SCN) as a magnetic photocatalyst for CO2 C-C coupling reactions. This novel catalyst significantly accelerates the photocatalytic CO2 conversion into multi-carbon molecules, particularly hydrocarbons, which are essential materials in the energy and chemical industries. The catalyst exhibits 100 % selectivity for hydrocarbons (64 % CH4, 36 % C2 +), and effectively optimizes the progressive conversion of CO2 to CH4, eventually yielding C2 + hydrocarbons. The optimized KFO/5%-SCN demonstrated the highest rate of CO2 to CH4 conversion at 57.78 mu molg- 1h- 1 (283.1 ppm), which is 3.49 times and 8.85 times the conversion rate of KFO and SCN, respectively. Based on an analysis of the final products, the possible reaction mechanism was proposed, which helps deepen the understanding of CO2 activation in photocatalytic reduction and enhances the selectivity for hydrocarbon generation through C-C coupling reactions.