Fe3Si assisted Co3O4 nanorods: A case study of photothermal catalytic CO oxidation under ambient solar irradiation

Abstract

CO oxidation is one of the most important catalytic reactions and it has to be run at relatively high temperature. Photothermal catalysis system could convert light as heat to drive CO oxidation rather than their conventional counterparts that use only thermal stimulus. But the light intensity required in this photothermal catalysis system is much higher than the solar intensity, restricting the application of photothermal CO oxidation. Here we present a Fe3Si based photothermal converted system to assist Co3O4 rhombus-shaped nanorods catalysts for achieving efficient photothermal CO oxidation just under weak solar irradiation. Based on photothermal experiments, we conclude that Fe3Si based photo-thermal converted system can convert 0.3–0.35 kW m−2 solar irradiation into a temperature as high as 160 °C, 3 times higher than existing photothermal catalytic systems, which able to excite the activity of Co3O4 rhombus-shaped nanorods for complete CO oxidation, solely irradiated by third of standard solar light and outdoor sunlight. The results suggested that the photothermal CO oxidation can be driven by ambient solar irradiation in the presence of Fe3Si based photothermal system and Co3O4 rhombus-shaped nanorods, facilitating for industrial applications.