Integrated Photothermal Nanoreactors for Efficient Hydrogenation of CO2

To alleviate the energy crisis and global warming, photothermal catalysis is an attractive way to efficiently convert CO2 and renewable H-2 into value-added fuels and chemicals. However, the catalytic performance is usually restricted by the trade-off between the dispersity and light absorption property of metal catalysts. Here we demonstrate a simple SiO2-protected metal-organic framework pyrolysis strategy to fabricate a new type of integrated photothermal nanoreactor with a comparatively high metal loading, dispersity, and stability. The core-satellite structured Co@SiO2 exhibits strong sunlight-absorptive ability and excellent catalytic activity in CO2 hydrogenation, which is ascribed to the functional separation of different sizes of Co nanoparticles. Large-sized plasmonic Co nanoparticles are mainly responsible for the light absorption and conversion to heat (nanoheaters), whereas small-sized Co nanoparticles with high intrinsic activities are responsible for the catalysis (nanoreactors). This study provides a new concept for designing efficient photothermal catalytic materials.