Photoelectrocatalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Methanol Using CuFe₂O₄ Modified with Graphene Oxide under Visible Light Irradiation

Photoelectrocatalytic reduction of CO 2 into valuable products can provide energy in a sustainable way with leveling off of the concentration of CO 2 in our environment. In this study, graphene oxide (GO) incorporated with copper ferrite (CuFe 2 O 4 ) has been employed to enhance photoelectrocatalytic CO 2 reduction under visible light. The TEM and XPS characterization indicated a strong interaction between the CuFe 2 O 4 and GO in the hybrid catalyst. The GO incorporation reduced the e – /h + recombination in the hybrid catalyst by trapping the photoexcited electrons from CuFe 2 O 4 leading to high methanol yield of 28.8 μmol L –1 cm –2 at 20.5% quantum efficiency. The incident photon current efficiency (IPCE) and Faradaic efficiency for methanol formation were observed as 8.02% and 87%, respectively. The results showed that the photoelectrocatalytic activity for CO 2 reduction can be improved by incorporating GO with CuFe 2 O 4, and it provides a universal platform to fabricate GO–CuFe 2 O 4 based hybrid photocatalyst with promising applications in CO 2 reduction.