The rGO/CuO composite materials as photocatalyst for CO₂conversion into methanol under UV light

CO2 is a pollutant gas resulting from the combustion of fossil fuel and organic matters. As the population increases, the consumption of fossil fuel also increases. As a consequence, the production of CO2 increases but the fossil fuel stocks decrease. CO2 gas causes some environmental and health problems. In this research, CO2 was converted into methanol, a renewable energy source, by using rGO/CuO composite material as photocatalyst under UV irradiation as a simulation of the sunlight. In this way, the two problems could be solved, the CO2 polution and the energy crisis. rGO was prepared by modified Hummer method and CuO was prepared by hydrothermal method. In this experiment, the composition of rGO in the composite was 2.5%. CO2 gas was flown for 5min with a flow rate of 1 slpm. The UV irradiation time was varied 2, 2.5 and 3 hours. X-Ray Diffractometer and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) were used to characterize the structure and morphology of material respectively. Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrophotometer (GC-MS) was used to quantify the resulted methanol. As a result, the highest methanol production was 1970.1 mmole/(hour gram catalyst) after irradiated by UV light for 2.5 hours.