Development of Zinc Selenide-based Z-scheme Photocatalyst for Photoreforming of Methanol

Photoreforming of methanol is a sustainable hydrogen (H2) generation route with formaldehyde (HCHO) as value-added by-products. This work delved into the development of photocatalyst system in maximising the photoreforming efficiency. In initial phase, amino acids were employed as green capping ligands to engineer the photocatalytic features of zinc selenide (ZnSe). Subsequently, silver carbonate (Ag2CO3) was incorporated to form an all-solid-state Z-scheme with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as charge mediator. This is trailed by the optimization of rGO reduction degree which enhanced the photocatalytic performance of the resultant Z-scheme, achieving 88.6 and 246.7 µmol/g.hr of H2 and HCHO, respectively.