ARTIFICIAL LEAVES: DEVELOPMENT OF SMART MATERIALS FOR CO2 CAPTURE AND CONVERSION
carbon dioxide; photoconversion; artificial photosynthesis; chlorophyll; semiconductors.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased significantly in recent decades due to population and industrial growth. Thus, different capture and conversion techniques have been developed, evolving towards producing economically viable materials derived from a polluting gas, cooperating for its mitigation in the atmosphere. The CO2 photoconversion process (“artificial photosynthesis”) stands out among these technologies. Mimicking the natural photosynthesis process, this work aimed to develop a hybrid photocatalyst using a bacterial cellulose matrix, a porphyrin, and an oxide heteroconjugated in an S scheme. The porphyrin was extracted from the Brassica Oleracea plant, and V=O replaced its metallic center (Mg). The synthesis of TiO2 as a titanium isopropoxide precursor produced a mixed oxide anatase:rutile, an efficient strategy to inhibit the recombination of the photogenerated pairs. Bacterial cellulose was made with the microorganism Komagataeibacter Xylinum in a HestrinSchram culture medium, with three generations of membranes being obtained for each culture. The matrix (bacterial cellulose) has high porosity, and the adsorption method was used for porphyrin impregnation, obtaining incorporation >95%.