Recent Progress on Photothermal Heterogeneous Catalysts for CO2 Conversion Reactions

Converting the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into important chemical fuels is promising to alleviate the global warming problem. Photocatalytic CO 2 reduction is beneficial for energy storage and environmental protection; however, it suffers from low efficiency. Recently, photothermal catalysis, which merits the advantages of both photocatalysis and traditional thermally driven catalysis, has been extensively studied and proven promising. Herein, the scope of catalyst type within heterogeneous catalysts is discussed, the latest progress of photothermal heterogeneous catalysts designed for CO 2 conversion reactions is described, including the reduction of CO 2 by H 2 O, CO 2 hydrogenation to CO, CH 4 , CH 3 OH, or C 2+ , CO 2 reforming of CH 4 (CRM), CO 2 cycloaddition reaction, etc. the preparation principles of photothermal catalysts are summarized, the challenges on the design and development of highly efficient photothermal catalysts are pointed out, and the future research directions are prospected.