Recently, Dr. Li Yaguang and others from our college's Photodriven Carbon Neutralization Research Team were invited by the internationally renowned journal "ACS Nano" to review the regulation and utilization of solar light and catalytic performance of nanostructured materials for photothermal carbon dioxide (CO2) hydrogenation reactions, based on the team's series of important progress in the field of photothermal catalytic CO2 hydrogenation. The related paper "Nanostructured Materials for Photothermal Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation: Regulating Solar Utilization and Catalytic Performance" was published in "ACS Nano" with Hebei University as the first affiliation (DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c09025). Dr. Lv Cuncun, Ph.D. students Bai Xianhua, Dr. Ning Shangbo are co-first authors, and Dr. Li Yaguang and Professor Ye Jinhua are co-corresponding authors.

Photothermal catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide (CO2) to convert CO2 into fuels or chemicals is an effective way to alleviate energy shortages and achieve carbon neutrality. The design strategy of nanostructured materials in the photothermal catalytic CO2 hydrogenation process is crucial for building photothermal devices, designing and preparing catalysts, and obtaining the best photothermal CO2 hydrogenation performance. In this article, the authors first summarize several important nano-material design strategies to improve photothermal catalytic CO2 hydrogenation performance, including promoting light collection to increase solar absorption, and reducing thermal conductivity and infrared emissivity to improve solar energy utilization. The authors then elaborate on the latest applications of photothermal catalytic CO2 hydrogenation to produce C1 products (such as CO, CH4, and CH3OH) and multi-carbon hydrocarbons (C2+). In the end, the authors also present their views on the future prospects and development of photothermal CO2 utilization.

This work was supported by the Hebei Province Outstanding Youth Fund, National Natural Science Foundation project, Hebei University Life Science and Green Development Research Institute project, Hebei University Natural Science Multidisciplinary Research project, and Hokkaido University Photon project funding.

Article link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.2c09025