Progress and Prospect of Photothermal Catalysis

Recently, solar-driven synthesis due to its energy-saving and environmentally friendly advantages has attracted more and more attention, whereas the low solar-to-chemical conversion efficiency significantly hindered its development. New effective options that fully utilize full-band sunlight are urgently needed. Novel photothermal catalysis combined with the advantages of photocatalysis and thermalcatalysis can improve the utilization efficiency of solar energy and lower the reaction temperature, thus becoming a promising technology. This review divides photothermal catalysis into photo-assisted thermalcatalysis, thermal-assisted photocatalysis, and photothermal synergistic catalysis. Furthermore, the catalytic mechanical understanding of how photothermal affects the catalytic property of different applications(e.g., water splitting, CO2/N2 reduction, and environmental treatment) was also summed up and discussed in detail. The discussion ends with unsolved challenges in photothermal catalysis, particularly emphasizing the effect of temperature or sunlight on catalytic performance.