Search

The photoreduction of the green-house gas CO2 into carbon monoxide (CO) is a growing process due to the use of CO for the production of methanol in the Fischer-Tropsch process and the synthesis of many of the bulk chemicals. Here, we have synthesized phosphorous doped graphitic carbon nitride (P-g-C3N4) sensitized by the cobalt phthalocyanine complex for the molecular reduction of CO2 into CO under visible-light irradiation—the doping of phosphorous improved the stability as well as the harvesting of the visible region. The CoPc@P-g-C3N4 hybrid photocatalyst exhibited the highest efficiency for the photoreduction of CO2 with a high yield of 295 μmol-g−1 for CO under the experimental conditions. Also, hydrogen with low concentration was identified as a by-product under the experimental conditions. The photocatalyst had stability for six consecutive runs with negligible loss of the activity and no leaching of the cobalt content at the end of the sixth run of the photoreduction experiment. The stability of the photocatalysts is an advantage, which made it a suitable candidate for the current reaction system.

Additional file 1: Table S1. The primers used in the current study. Figure S1. The pH test for ds-MIRNA/SPc complex on pH test strips. Different colors represent the corresponding pH values reference to the right color table. Figure S2. Representative TEM images of ds-MIRNA/SPc complex at the mass ratio of 1:2 and 1:3. Representative complexes were enlarged. Figure S3. Enhanced delivery of SPc-loaded ds-MIRNA into protoplasts. The fluorescent photos were taken after 2 h incubation. Figure S4. QRT-PCR assay for target genes of Arabidopsis. The ds-MIR166a/SPc complex was applied to the root surface every 24 h, and the samples were collected on 6 days after the treatment. Triplicate biological replicates were used for each treatment. Different letters on columns indicate significant differences (Duncan’s multiple range test, P