Carbon microfiber layer as noble metal-catalyst support for selective CO2 photoconversion in phosphate solution: Toward artificial photosynthesis in a single-compartment reactor

• We report the electro- or photoelctro-chemical CO2 reduction in a phosphate buffer solution.
• We use metal particle with carbon fiber for CO2 reduction catalyst.
• The carbon fiber has the effect of improving the selectivity for CO formation on metals.
• The carbon fiber provides an advantageous reaction environment for metallic CO2 reduction catalysts.

Metal catalysts are known to exhibit high selectivity for electrochemical CO2 reduction reactions only in a bicarbonate solution. Here, high selectivity was realized even in a phosphate solution using a carbon microfiber support for Au and Ag catalysts, and accordingly high selectivity in CO2 photoconversion was demonstrated in a single-compartment reactor filled with a phosphate solution.

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