Solar light-induced injection of hot electrons and photocarriers for synergistically enhanced photothermocatalysis over Cu-Co/SrTiO3 catalyst towards boosting CO hydrogenation into C2–C4 hydrocarbons

Solar light-driven catalysis provides a viable approach for solar-to-chemical energy conversion, but it is difficult to maximize the conversion efficiency of solar energy through individual photocatalysis or photothermocatalysis. Herein, we construct a light-induced photo- and thermal-synergistic catalysis based on an adjacent Co and Cu nanoparticles co-loading on SrTiO3 nanoparticles. Under the irradiation of concentrated solar light, the SrTiO3 support is excited by ultraviolet light to induce photocatalytic effect to generate photocarriers; meanwhile, the localized surface plasma resonance-active Cu nanoparticles mainly absorb the visible-infrared light to produce hot electrons which are either quenched to generate heat or transported to active sites; finally, the active-phase Co nanoparticles converge the electrons and heat to drive CO hydrogenation into C2–C4 hydrocarbons. This study demonstrates that a rationally-designed catalyst can effectively convert solar energy to photocarriers/hot electrons and heat, and importantly, can couple them to regulate reaction pathways towards the production of value-added chemicals.