Recent Advance in Solar-driven Photothermal Water-Splitting for Hydrogen Production: A Minireview

Solar energy's potential to revolutionize the energy sector is undeniable, with its ability to produce hydrogen—a clean and renewable fuel—via solar-driven catalytic water splitting. This review highlights the critical strides in harnessing solar-driven photothermal catalytic for hydrogen production, a technology promising, eco-friendly, and sustainable energy future. It first discusses in detail the classification of solar-driven photothermal catalytic water splitting for hydrogen production and comprehensively reviews the recent progresses, specifically dividing them into photothermal catalysis under external heating, photothermal catalysis by the concentrated sunlight, and photothermal catalysis using the full spectrum of unconcentrated sunlight for hydrogen production. Further, the mechanism of introducing thermal energy to enhance photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiency was also discussed in detail, focusing on five aspects: thermodynamics, ionization constant, charge carriers, mass transfer process, and hydrogen-oxygen recombination reaction. Finally, this review summarizes potential challenges and possible research directions of solar-driven photothermal catalytic hydrogen production, aiming to provide readers with research clues and promote the further development of photothermal catalytic technology in hydrogen production.