Boosting methanol photothermal synthesis from CO2 using Cu@CeO2 with abundant Frustrated-Lewis-Pairs

Photothermal CO 2 into methanol is an effective approach to address energy and environmental challenges, but the low conversion and poor selectivity limit its large-scale application. Here, 0.5Cu@CeO 2 with atomically dispersed active sites and abundant Frustrated-Lewis-pairs (FLPs) was synthesized using coordination complex precipitation reaction. The substitution of Cu 2+ with Ce 3+ results in the formation of new FLPs, which promotes the upward shift of conduction band (CB) and enhances the reducing capability of catalyst. Moreover, the more sensitive and stronger capability of photogenerated carriers also endows 0.5Cu@CeO 2 with stronger CO 2 reduction capability. The photothermal methanol yield of 0.5Cu@CeO 2 reached 1896.02 μmol·g cat –1 ·h –1 . The DFT results demonstrate the FLPs structure of 0.5Cu@CeO 2 promotes parallel adsorption of CO 2 and *CO species. Meanwhile, the presence of O v inhibits the dissociation of oxygen species, consequently boosting the methanol synthesis. The construction of FLPs structure introduces a novel method to enhance CO 2 conversion utilizing photothermal catalysis.