@article{Wang2025, 
author = {Hongmin Wang and Bo Shang and Chungseok Choi and Sungho Jeon and Yuanzuo Gao and Tyler Wang and Nia J. Harmon and Mengxia Liu and Eric A. Stach and Hailiang Wang},
title = {Enhanced methanol production from photothermal CO2 reduction via multilevel interface design},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {2},
pages = {94907160},
keywords = {photothermal catalysis, solar fuel, CO2 hydrogenation, methanol production, multilevel interface, Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 (CZA) catalyst},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94907160},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94907160},
abstract = {Photothermal CO2 hydrogenation is a promising route to produce methanol as a sustainable liquid solar fuel. However, most existing catalysts require a combination of solar irradiation and additional heat input to achieve a satisfactory reaction rate. For the few that can be driven solely by light, their reaction rates are one order of magnitude lower. We develop a photothermal catalyst with multilevel interfaces that achieves improved methanol production from photothermal CO2 hydrogenation without external heat. The catalyst features a layered structure comprising Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 (CZA) covered by oxidized carbon black (oCB), where the oCB/CZA interface promotes efficient heat generation and transfer, and the Cu/oxide interface contributes to high catalytic activity. Under a mild pressure of 8 bar, our oCB/CZA catalyst shows a methanol selectivity of 64.7% with a superior production rate of 4.91 mmol·gcza−1·h−1, at least one order of magnitude higher than other photothermal catalysts solely driven by light. This work demonstrates a photothermal catalyst design strategy for liquid solar fuel production.}
}