Oxide-based composites: applications in thermo-photocatalysis

Abstract

The combination of thermal and photonic energy sources to carry out catalyzed chemical reactions appears as a new avenue to optimize the current industrial-oriented processes as well as to open new ones. Herein, we analyze the contribution of novel oxide-based composite systems to the thermo-photocatalysis field. In the first place, the review article gives a brief introduction about the physicochemical framework to interpret the thermo-photocatalytic properties of oxide-based solids. From this point and to provide an overview of the progress of the field, we classify the oxide-active catalysts in three main categories considering materials with catalytic properties primarily governed by plasmonic, defect-related, and thermal effects. For each type of system, we analyze the representative oxide systems and the corresponding composite systems, emphasizing the study on the interpretation of the catalytic behavior. The contribution ends with a summary of the current status and an outlook into the future of the field.