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NiO@Ni nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon for efficient photothermal CO2 methanation coupled with H2O splitting

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Abstract

Photothermal carbon dioxide (CO2) methanation has attracted increasing interest in solar fuel synthesis, which employs the advantages of photocatalytic H2O splitting as a hydrogen source and photothermal catalytic CO2 reduction. This work prepared three-dimensional (3D) honeycomb N-doped carbon (NC) loaded with core–shell NiO@Ni nanoparticles generated in situ at 500 °C (NiO@Ni/NC-500). Under the photothermal catalysis (200 °C, 1.5 W/cm2), the CH4 evolution rate of NiO@Ni/NC-500 reached 5.5 mmol/(g·h), which is much higher than that of the photocatalysis (0.8 mmol/(g·h)) and the thermal catalysis (3.7 mmol/(g·h)). It is found that the generated localized surface plasmon resonance enhances the injection of hot electrons from Ni to NiO, while thermal heating accelerates the thermal motion of radicals, thus generating a strong photo-thermal synergistic effect on the reaction. The CO2 reduction to CH4 follows the *OCH pathway. This work demonstrates the synergistic effect of NiO@Ni and NC can enhance the catalytic performance of photothermal CO2 reduction reaction coupled with water splitting reaction.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2022YFE0208100) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22278405, 52222005, and 22278006).

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Author notes

  1. Yun Zhou and Peng Zheng contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100190, China

    Yun Zhou, Wenqing Xu, Tingyu Zhu & Fabing Su

  2. Key Laboratory on Resources Chemicals and Materials of Ministry of Education, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang, 110142, China

    Peng Zheng & Guangwen Xu

  3. Institute of Industrial Chemistry and Energy Technology, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang, 110142, China

    Peng Zheng, Guangwen Xu & Fabing Su

  4. School of Ecology and Environment, Bei**g Technology and Business University, Bei**g, 100048, China

    Fang Wang

  5. Bei**g Key Laboratory of Enze Biomass Fine Chemicals, College of New Materials and Chemical Engineering, Bei**g Institute of Petrochemical Technology, Bei**g, 102617, China

    Fangna Gu

  6. International School of Bei**g 10 An Hua Street, Bei**g, Shunyi District, 100048, China

    Qinyang Lu

  7. Department of Chemical Engineering, Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT), Shantou, 515063, China

    Ziyi Zhong

  8. Technion Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Haifa, 32000, Israel

    Ziyi Zhong

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  1. Yun Zhou
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  2. Peng Zheng
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  3. Fang Wang
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Correspondence to Fang Wang, Fangna Gu, Wenqing Xu or Fabing Su.

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Zhou, Y., Zheng, P., Wang, F. et al. NiO@Ni nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon for efficient photothermal CO2 methanation coupled with H2O splitting. Nano Res. 17, 2283–2290 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6226-5

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