Synthesis and characterisation of TiO2-Cu3(BTC)2 metal organic framework based advanced materials for photocatalytic CO2 reduction

Global warming has caused a serious threat on the environment. The emission of harmful gases like CO2 has been the major contributor for global warming. Besides that, the exhaustion of fossil fuels has created major energy barriers. Photocatalytic CO2 reduction to fuels using metal-organic framework (MOF) based nanocomposites will help in addressing the above issues. MOF has emerged as a novel class of nanomaterials that has seen diverse applications. TiO2 is considered one of the most impressive materials for photon absorption application. Thus, incorporating the two superior materials to form a nano composite will broaden its application. The work projects the synthesis of TiO2@Cu3(BTC)2 (HKUST-1) through the hydrothermal method and solvothermal techniques. The synthesized MOF composite has been studied for structural, textural, morphological, and optical behavioral changes after incorporating TiO2 in Cu3(BTC)2. The characteristics of the catalysts were determined using various characterisation techniques. The structural properties were studied through XRD and FTIR analysis. The prominent peaks in XRD of the composite match with the reference data of the individual components. The peaks at different wave numbers in FTIR shows the formation of different bonds in the composite. Thus, both methods confirm the formation of the composite. The surface area along with pore volume analysis, was incorporated to quantify the textural properties. The BET of 38.75 m2/gm with pore volume of 0.0054 cc/gm was obtained for the composite. The STEM and FESEM revealed the morphological properties of the composite showing their nano structures. The optical property was studied using UV Vis spectrophotometry. The composite showed an increase in absorbance in the visible region after the incorporation of TiO2. The studied properties suggest the potential of the synthesised nano composite in tuning better photo absorption capacity of any nano material for photo catalytic CO2 reduction.