Introduction to the Solution
Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction, as compared to photoelectrochemical water splitting for hydrogen production, offers a new approach and pathway to address the "greenhouse effect." By utilizing greenhouse gas CO₂ as a reactant, it presents a solution for mitigating the greenhouse effect. The reaction products can be categorized into gases and liquids. Gaseous products include carbon monoxide, methane, ethane, and more, while liquid products encompass formic acid, methanol, and others. Reaction pressures can be categorized as negative pressure, atmospheric pressure, and positive pressure, each imposing specific requirements on pressure resistance, circulation efficiency, and sampling structure of the reaction setup.
Based on the reaction pressure, we offer different solutions.
Configuration 1: Light Source + Labsolar 6A + Gas Chromatograph
Configuration 2: Light Source + PLR MFPR-Ⅰ Multi-Functional Photochemical Reactor + Gas Chromatograph
Configuration 3: Photochemical Workstation
Advantages of the Solution:
1. Innovative glass multi-way sampling valve (built-in quantitative loop) + automatic actuator, enabling automated sampling injection on a glass valve. This ensures structural foundation for circulation efficiency while maintaining gas-tightness. Avoiding placing the sampling valve on the chromatograph, eliminating glass tubing in the circulation pipeline to prevent adsorption, and providing lower gas resistance, thus promoting better gas circulation.
2. Built-in instrument methods that require only setting the sampling period and frequency, ensuring simplicity. The sampling process is fully automated, allowing 24-hour unattended operation and saving researchers' time. Manual operation is also retained.
3. Small system circulation volume, around 300 mL, using a high-throughput magnetic drive syringe pump for rapid and uniform gas circulation of about 5 minutes. This allows more sample points for product detection in the same reaction period.
4. Excellent gas-tightness, oxygen leakage within 24 hours is < 3 μmol, ensuring experimental accuracy, particularly for oxygen production experiments.
5. Linear regression of the standard curve: Within the hydrogen production range of 100 μL to 10 mL, the system's correlation coefficient is ≥ 0.999; RSD for repeated sampling is < 3%.
6. Outstanding expandability and compatibility with a rich reactor library. Gas-solid phase experiments (with in-situ temperature measurement) can be achieved by changing reactors, or combined with PEC2000 for online measurement of gas and electrical signals related to Faraday efficiency.
7. Multi-functional quantitative buffer gas storage device, allowing variable volume to adapt to different gas production requirements and system sampling volumes.
8. Real-time monitoring of system status using the Labsolar 6A Photocatalytic Test System, including reaction gas pressure, temperature, and automatic multi-way valve status. These aspects combined ensure system accuracy and repeatability.
9. Delivered as a complete system, portable installation without on-site open flames, ensuring laboratory safety.
10. Metal protective enclosure offering protection for system glass components, radiation, and potential reaction gas leaks. Glass tubing is mostly concealed, maintaining an elegant appearance without increasing dimensions, measuring only 490 × 520 × 740 mm.
Advantages of the Solution:
1. Capable of withstanding certain temperature and pressure tests, withstanding temperatures of 180°C and pressures of 0.9 Mpa.
2. Compact size, occupying minimal laboratory space and saving room.
3. Large sample-to-quantitative ratio, high sensitivity. System volume is about 100 mL, with a 0.2 mL quantitative loop.
4. Fully automated sampling, 24-hour unattended operation, saving time.
5. Diverse and rich functionality, capable of both top and side illumination, suitable for both photochemical and photoelectrochemical experiments.
6. Expandable for electrocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic hydrogen and carbon dioxide reduction experiments.
The photochemical workstation is a flexible modular system, comprising:
Front Processing Unit (Multi-Channel Atmospheric Controller PLA-MAC1005);
Multi-Functional Reaction Unit (Multi-Channel PCX50C);
Automatic Sampling Unit (Automatic Sampler PLA-GPA1000);
Detection and Analysis Unit (Composite Gas Analyzer PLD-CGA1000 or other gas chromatographs).
Advantages of the Solution:
1. High efficiency, fully automated 9-parallel reactions, sampling, and detection;
2. Economical, one unit can accommodate nine units, saving time and expenses;
3. Fully automated sampling, avoiding system errors caused by manual sampling;
4. Multiple wavelength light discs available to meet different requirements; modular design for simple and convenient light disc updates; customizable wavelength combinations;
5. Reliable parallelism and comparability, using an internationally patented bottom illumination method (U.S. Patent No. 15/328,869, Japan Patent No. 6348666), where incident light enters through the optical-grade bottom of the bottle, greatly reducing light diffusion and reflection compared to other manufacturers' side-wall illumination, providing a structural foundation for data parallelism and comparability;
6. Versatile Capability, Catalyst Performance Screening (Hydrogen Production, Oxygen Production, Complete Water Splitting, Carbon Dioxide Reduction, etc.), Experimental Condition Optimization (Temperature, Humidity, Pressure, Concentration, Light Intensity, etc.);
7. Utilizes efficient and long-life micro pumps for maintenance-free operation; reaction bottles are less prone to damage compared to glass racks; maintenance and operational costs are nearly negligible;
Can be evacuated and different gradients of internal bottle pressure or the same internal bottle pressure can be set within the pressure range, facilitating flexible material testing under various conditions;
8. Evacuation + Inert Gas Filling for automatic operation and auto-stop. Once sample handling logic is set, it can be directly reused. All reaction bottles can be quickly processed in minutes;
9. Air-tightness to reduce interference from oxygen in the air;
10. Strong resistance to continuous sampling interference, supporting dense and consecutive sampling with micro-liter sampling needles;
11. High sensitivity, not missing low-yield samples;
12. High data accuracy, ensuring reliability of experimental data;
13. Stable repeatability, ensuring stability and consistency of multi-level equipment integration;
14. A new-generation research tool, obtaining multiple invention patents.
