Near-infrared-featured broadband CO<sub>2</sub> reduction with water to hydrocarbons by surface plasmon.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36639386.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-35860-2 and PMC identifier 9839746.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Imitating the natural photosynthesis to synthesize hydrocarbon fuels represents a viable strategy for solar-to-chemical energy conversion, where utilizing low-energy photons, especially near-infrared photons, has been the ultimate yet challenging aim to further improving conversion efficiency. Plasmonic metals have proven their ability in absorbing low-energy photons, however, it remains an obstacle in effectively coupling this energy into reactant molecules. Here we report the broadband plasmon-induced CO<sub>2</sub> reduction reaction with water, which achieves a CH<sub>4</sub> production rate of 0.55 mmol g<sup>-1</sup> h<sup>-1</sup> with 100% selectivity to hydrocarbon products under 400 mW cm<sup>-2</sup> full-spectrum light illumination and an apparent quantum efficiency of 0.38% at 800 nm illumination. We find that the enhanced local electric field plays an irreplaceable role in efficient multiphoton absorption and selective energy transfer for such an excellent light-driven catalytic performance. This work paves the way to the technique for low-energy photon utilization.