Coupling of photodegradation of RhB with photoreduction of CO2 over rGO/SrTi0.95Fe0.05O3−δ catalyst: A strategy for one-pot conversion of organic pollutants to methanol and ethanol

For the first time, a novel strategy is developed to couple photocatalytic oxidation with photocatalytic reduction to achieve one-pot conversion of rhodamine (RhB) to methanol and ethanol by using rGO/SrTi 0.95 Fe 0.05 O 3− δ photocatalyst. In the approach, RhB was photocatalytically degraded to CO 2 and water, and then the as-obtained CO 2 was converted into CH 3 OH and C 2 H 5 OH by means of photocatalytic reduction under simulated sunlight irradiation. Photocatalytic experimental results show the 1%rGO/SrTi 0.95 Fe 0.05 O 3− δ has the best photocatalytic activity among the as-prepared catalysts and the corresponding product rate of CH 3 OH and C 2 H 5 OH is 10.76 and 6.14   μmol   g −1   h −1 , respectively, with a 1.53% apparent quantum efficiency. Furthermore, a photocatalytic mechanism was proposed to explain the detailed process of one-pot conversion of RhB into hydrocarbons. The present work gives a good example to combine the photodegradation of RhB with photoreduction of CO 2 and proposes a new method to simultaneously tackle the problems of environmental pollution and energy crisis.