Simulated solar light driven photothermal catalytic purification of toluene over iron oxide supported single atom Pt catalyst

In this work, Fe2O3 supported single atom Pt (x Pt1/Fe2O3, x = 0.25 and 0.5 wt%) catalysts (SACs) are synthesized via a novel and simple impregnation-pyrolysis method. HAADF-STEM images show that Pt is atomically dispersed on the surface of Fe2O3. All samples exhibit good light-thermal conversion efficiency, which can increase the surface temperature of catalysts to 210 °C. The 0.5 Pt1/Fe2O3 exhibits the best photothermal catalytic performance (the toluene conversion and CO2 yield are 95 % and 87 %, respectively) for toluene oxidation under the irradiation of simulated sunlight with light intensity of 720 mW/cm2, which is attributed to its good light-thermal conversion efficiency and low temperature reducibility. The Vis-IR light plays a critical role in the photothermal catalytic oxidation of toluene in the whole solar spectrum. Furthermore, the possible photothermal catalytic reaction pathway of toluene oxidation is proposed based on the TD-GC/MS and in-situ DRIFTS experiments.