Ag and TiO nanoparticles co-modified defective zeolite TS-1 for improved photocatalytic CO reduction.

Photocatalytic CO reduction into fuels has been an attractive research topic. Herein, Ag and TiO nanoparticles co-loaded zeolite TS-1 (Ag-TiO/TS-1) were synthesized by the ion-exchange and subsequently in-situ photodeposition method. The obtained Ag-TiO/TS-1 sample has a high surface area and rich Ti-V defects and as well as highly dispersed Ag nanoparticles. As expected, the sample Ag-TiO/TS-1 not only shows high CO adsorption capacity, but also improves the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. As a result, only CO and CH can be detected on the sample Ag-TiO/TS-1 in the photocatalytic CO conversion, and the competing H evolution can be completely suppressed, suggestive of its high selectivity. The super photocatalytic activity toward CO reduction can be ascribed to the synergistic effect among highly dispersed Ag nanoparticle, the support zeolite TS-1 and TiO with highly exposed {101} planes.