Coupling of photodegradation of RhB with photoreduction of CO₂ over rGO/SrTi_0.95Fe_0.05O_3−Δ catalyst: A strategy for one-pot conversion of organic pollutants to methanol and ethanol

For the first time, a novel strategy is developed to couple photocatalytic oxidation with photocatalytic reduction to achieve one-pot conversion of rhodamine (RhB) to methanol and ethanol by using rGO/SrTi_0.95Fe_0.05O_3−δ photocatalyst. In the approach, RhB was photocatalytically degraded to CO₂ and water, and then the as-obtained CO₂ was converted into CH₃OH and C₂H₅OH by means of photocatalytic reduction under simulated sunlight irradiation. Photocatalytic experimental results show the 1%rGO/SrTi_0.95Fe_0.05O_3−δ has the best photocatalytic activity among the as-prepared catalysts and the corresponding product rate of CH₃OH and C₂H₅OH is 10.76 and 6.14 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹, respectively, with a 1.53% apparent quantum efficiency. Furthermore, a photocatalytic mechanism was proposed to explain the detailed process of one-pot conversion of RhB into hydrocarbons. The present work gives a good example to combine the photodegradation of RhB with photoreduction of CO₂ and proposes a new method to simultaneously tackle the problems of environmental pollution and energy crisis.