Magnetron sputtering growth of AlN film for photocatalytic CO2 reduction

Nitride has excellent optical properties and is a promising photocatalytic material. However, there are few studies on the effect of AlN on photocatalytic CO2 reduction. In this work, AlN film was grown on Si (111) substrate by magnetron sputtering method and used for photocatalytic reduction of CO2. We successfully demonstrated the possibility of a photocatalytic system based on the AlN photochemical process. The system has no external energy input other than light. Here, the effects of different concentrations of NiO co-catalysts on the reduction products in the photocatalytic process were investigated. We found that when the ratio of NiO to organic solvent was 1:400, the production of H-2 and CO was the highest. The conversion of CO2 to CO was increased from 6.674 to 16.67 mu mol * mol(-1), which is 2.49 times that of bare AlN photoanode. The photocurrent of NiO-modified AlN photoanodes are also significantly higher compared to bare AlN photoanode.