TY  - JOUR
AU  - Zhu, Chengyang
AU  - Huang, Hengming
AU  - Hu, Huiling
AU  - Fang, Jiaojiao
AU  - Mao, Junjie
PY  - 2025
TI  - Modulation of oxygen vacancies and hot electrons promotes highly efficient CO2 photoreduction towards C2H6
JO  - Nano Research
SN  - 1998-0124
SP  - 94907275
VL  - 18
IS  - 4
AB  - Efficient CO2 photoreduction towards C2+ solar fuels has emerged as one of the most promising strategies for alleviating the current energy and environment problems. However, the C-C coupling barriers and complex multi-electron transfer steps still limit the activity and selectivity of CO2-to-C2 photoreduction. Herein, Au nanoparticles (NPs) modified CeO2 with oxygen vacancies (Au/CeO2-VO) were reported for enhancing the CO2-to-C2H6 photoreduction performance. Au/CeO2-VO achieved the high C2H6 activity of 51.7 μmol·g−1·h−1, accompanied with C2H6 selectivity up to 80% in the absence of sacrificial agent. Experimental results combined with theoretical simulation indicated that VO strengthened CO2 adsorption and activated *CO production, and plasmon-induced hot electrons from Au NPs to CeO2-VO facilitated the *CO-*CO dimerization. The synergistic modulation of VO and hot electrons further decreased the energy barriers of C-C coupling and subsequent hydrogenation, resulting in the superior photoreduction performance. This work opens an avenue of developing plasmonic photocatalysts for multi-carbon products from CO2 photoreduction.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.26599/NR.2025.94907275
DO  - 10.26599/NR.2025.94907275