Study on Combining Non-Thermal Plasma with Photocatalysis for Carbon Dioxide Conversion(3/3)

After industrialization, anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) increases significantly and resulting to global warming. Therefore, how to effectively reduce anthropogenic CO2 emission has become a global challenge. Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is currently developed by many countries to reduce CO2 emission, among them, converting CO2 into useful products including syngas, methanol and urea is one potential technique of carbon utilization. CO2 converting techniques include catalysis, photocatalysis and plasma. Photocatalysis has received much attention due to its effectiveness and potential to utilize solar energy. Furthermore, photons with various wavelengths can be emitted during discharge in a typical plasma reactor, and photons with appropriate wavelength can be utilized to initiate photocatalysis to improve CO2 conversion efficiency. This study aims to combine photocatalyst and non-thermal plasma to convert CO2 efficiently and can be divided into three stages: the first is to discuss the interactions between photocatalyst and non-thermal plasma via the characterization of the photocatalyst developed and kinetic study of non-thermal plasma, the second is to further improve CO2 conversion efficiency by optimizing the way to combine photocatalyst and non-thermal plasma and the last is to synthesize the advanced material which has both properties of ferroelectricity and photocatalysis to combine with non-thermal plasma to enhance CO2 conversion and to reveal the relationships between photocatalysis and ferroelectricity. We expect that CO2 can be effectively converted into syngas with via appropriate combination of plasma and photocatalyst and significantly increased energy efficiency to meet the requirement to be commercialized. The results are expected to elucidate the synergistic effects between non-thermal plasma and photocatalysis and specifically contribute to domestic and worldwide GHGs reduction.