Photocatalytic conversion of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) to high value products using TiO2 nanoparticles supported on stainless steel webnet

Abstract The direct conversion of CO 2 and CH 4 concurrently with a photocatalytic reaction system using nano TiO 2 particles coated on stainless steel webnet was investigated. The experiments were done under UV irradiation in an appropriate gas-phase batch reactor. SEM, XRD and UV–vis spectra analyses were carried out for characterization of prepared catalysts. Examination of the photocatalytic activities of TiO 2 on three different meshes of webnets demonstrated significantly higher yield for TiO 2 on 120 mesh than TiO 2 on 60 and 200 mesh webnets. In addition, the experiment results have shown that fabricated catalyst exposed to initial ratios of 45%CO 2 :45%CH 4 :10%He as gaseous feed components had the highest efficiency and under these experimental conditions, the conversions of 27.9% for CO 2 and 33.4% for CH 4 were obtained. The conversion products were characterized using FTIR spectroscopy with special designed cell in gas phase to be formate and acetate derivatives.