Concentrated solar CO2 reduction in H2O vapour with >1% energy conversion efficiency
Yuqi Ren, Yiwei Fu, Naixu Li, Changjun You, Jie Huang, Kai Huang, Zhenkun Sun, Jiancheng Zhou, Yitao Si, Yuan‐Hao Zhu, Wenshuai Chen, Lunbo Duan, Maochang Liu
Abstract
Abstract H 2 O dissociation plays a crucial role in solar-driven catalytic CO 2 methanation, demanding high temperature even for solar-to-chemical conversion efficiencies <1% with modest product selectivity. Herein, we report an oxygen-vacancy (V o ) rich CeO 2 catalyst with single-atom Ni anchored around its surface V o sites by replacing Ce atoms to promote H 2 O dissociation and achieve effective photothermal CO 2 reduction under concentrated light irradiation. The high photon flux reduces the apparent activation energy for CH 4 production and prevents V o from depletion. The defects coordinated with single-atom Ni, significantly promote the capture of charges and local phonons at the Ni d -impurity orbitals, thereby inducing more effective H 2 O activation. The catalyst presents a CH 4 yield of 192.75 µmol/cm 2 /h, with a solar-to-chemical efficiency of 1.14% and a selectivity ~100%. The mechanistic insights uncovered in this study should help further the development of H 2 O-activating catalysts for CO 2 reduction and thereby expedite the practical utilization of solar-to-chemical technologies.