Photothermal catalytic CO2 hydrogenation to methanol

Abstract

Utilization of waste CO2 to replace traditional fossil-based resource for production of valuable fuels or chemicals is an ideal strategy to release the pressure in energy and enviroment. As a platform molecule with both energy carrier and chemical feedstock attributes, methanol (CH3OH)'s synthesis has attracted increasing attention, especially with CO2 feedstock.Different from traditional syngas pathway requiring high temperature and pressure, high energy input and expensive H2, photothermal technology for CH3OH synthesis from CO2 has milder reaction conditions, utilizes renewable solar energy and green H2O as hydrogen source by coupling light energy capture with the thermocatalytic process. Although many encouaging results have been reported in photothermal CO₂ hydrogenation to CH3OH, a systematic summary on the recent development of photothermal CO₂ hydrogenation to CH3OH is of lack. In this review, we first introduce the siganificance of CO2 valoration and CH3OH as well as the thermodynamic property of CO2 to CH3OH, then discuss the advantages and nature of photothermal catalysis, summarize the development and common design strategies of photothermal catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation to CH3OH, and finally illucidate the nature of three reaction mechanisms such as photo-driven thermocatalysis, photo-assisted thermocatalysisi and thermal-assisted photocatalysis and give several examples how to distinguish them. This review will be helpful to stimulate the design of active catalysts and deepen the understanding of reaction mechanism, therefore advancing the devlopment of this technology.