Photo-thermal synergistic CO2 hydrogenation towards CO over PtRh bimetal-decorated GaN nanowires/Si†

Photo-thermal-synergistic hydrogenation is a promising strategy for upcycling carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals by maximally utilizing full-spectrum solar energy. Herein, by immobilizing Pt–Rh bimetal onto a well-developed GaN NWs/Si platform, CO₂ was photo-thermo-catalytically hydrogenated towards CO under concentrated light illumination without extra energies. The as-designed architecture demonstrates a considerable CO evolution rate of 11.7 mol g_GaN⁻¹ h⁻¹ with a high selectivity of 98.5% under concentrated light illumination of 5.3 W cm⁻², leading to a benchmark turnover frequency of 26 486 mol CO per mol PtRh per hour. It is nearly 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than that of pure thermal catalysis under the same temperature by external heating without light. Control experiments, various spectroscopic characterization methods, and density functional theory calculations are correlatively conducted to reveal the origin of the remarkable performance as well as the photo-thermal enhanced mechanism. It is found that the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs is dramatically inhibited under high temperatures arising from the photothermal effect. More critically, the synergy between photogenerated carriers arising from ultraviolet light and photoinduced heat arising from visible- and infrared light enables a sharp reduction of the apparent activation barrier of CO₂ hydrogenation from 2.09 downward to 1.18 eV. The evolution pathway of CO₂ hydrogenation towards CO is also disclosed at the molecular level. Furthermore, compared to monometallic Pt, the introduction of Rh further reduces the desorption energy barrier of *CO by optimizing the electronic properties of Pt, thus enabling the achievement of excellent activity and selectivity. This work provides new insights into CO₂ hydrogenation by maximally utilizing full-spectrum sunlight via photo-thermal synergy.