Nanostructured photocatalysts and doped wide-bandgap semiconductors

Abstract

Photocatalysts for reduction of carbon dioxide and water are provided that can be tuned to produce certain reaction products, including hydrogen, alcohol, aldehyde, and/or hydrocarbon products. These photocatalysts can form artificial photosystems and can be incorporated into devices that reduce carbon dioxide and water for production of various fuels. Doped wide-bandgap semiconductor nanotubes are provided along with synthesis methods. A variety of optical, electronic and magnetic dopants (substitutional and interstitial, energetically shallow and deep) are incorporated into hollow nanotubes, ranging from a few dopants to heavily-doped semiconductors. The resulting wide-bandgap nanotubes, with desired electronic (p- or n-doped), optical (ultraviolet bandgap to infrared absorption in co-doped nanotubes), and magnetic (from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic) properties, can be used in photovoltaics, display technologies, photocatalysis, and spintronic applications.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.