Photothermal catalytic enhancement of lignocellulosic biomass conversion: A more efficient way to produce high-value products and fuels

In recent years, solar energy catalytic conversion of biomass increment has attracted more and more attention due to its advantages of energy saving and environmental protection. However, standard semiconductor-based photocatalytic systems affected by the low solar-chemical conversion efficiency obviously hinders its development in view of the limited light harvesting abilities. The emergence of photothermal materials not only extends the absorption range of the spectrum (up to the full spectrum), but are also capable of generating localized heating (generating high-energy hot carriers) to trigger surface-catalyzed reactions and/or modulate the reaction pathways, thus synergistically improving the solar energy conversion efficiency. Thus, photothermal catalysis combines the positive aspects of photocatalysis and thermocatalysis, it is a promising technology for the conversion of biomass and its derivatives into value-added products. In this work, we mainly introduce the principle of photothermal biomass conversion, some photothermal catalytic materials applied biomass conversion, and the situation of various types of substrates for photothermal catalytic biomass conversion, etc. Finally, some solution strategies and outlooks regarding photothermal catalytic biomass are proposed.