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

[Display omitted] •Single atom Pt catalysts are synthesized via the impregnation-pyrolysis method.•0.5 Pt1/Fe2O3 exhibits high photothermal catalytic activity for toluene removal.•The Vis-IR light plays a critical role for toluene complete oxidation.•Possible photothermal catalytic mechanism for toluene oxidation is proposed.•The solar light driven photothermal catalytic purification technique is developed. 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.