Photothermal Conversion of CO 2 into CH 4 with H 2 over Group VIII Nanocatalysts: An Alternative Approach for Solar Fuel Production

The photothermal conversion of CO 2 provides a straightforward and effective method for the highly efficient production of solar fuels with high solar‐light utilization efficiency. This is due to several crucial features of the Group VIII nanocatalysts, including effective energy utilization over the whole range of the solar spectrum, excellent photothermal performance, and unique activation abilities. Photothermal CO 2 reaction rates (mol h −1 g −1 ) that are several orders of magnitude larger than those obtained with photocatalytic methods (μmol h −1 g −1 ) were thus achieved. It is proposed that the overall water‐based CO 2 conversion process can be achieved by combining light‐driven H 2 production from water and photothermal CO 2 conversion with H 2 . More generally, this work suggests that traditional catalysts that are characterized by intense photoabsorption will find new applications in photo‐induced green‐chemistry processes.