Recent progress in photothermal-catalysis: the pivotal impact factors and various applications from energy to environment

Review article, 2025

Photothermal catalysis is a synergetic process where photocatalysis and thermal catalysis work together to promote catalytic reactions, which compensates for the critical shortcomings of photocatalysis and thermal catalysis, achieving an effect of 1 + 1 > 2. Previous reviews have summarized the mechanism of photothermal catalysis and its specific application in certain fields, but few have systematically analyzed the essential factors affecting the activity of photothermal catalysis, or provided a comprehensive summary of its application fields. In this review, the superiority of photothermal catalysis over individual photocatalysis and thermal catalysis will be comprehensively discussed with the aim to emphasize the importance of developing photothermal catalysis. After elucidating the basic mechanism of photothermal catalysis, an ample discussion on the factors influencing the catalytic activity of photothermal materials is provided from the following three perspectives: morphology, localized surface plasmon resonance, and defective structure of photothermal materials. Subsequently, this review summarizes the broad applications of photothermal catalysis in environmental management and energy conversion. Finally, this review discusses the challenges encountered in photothermal catalysis technology and proposes directions for future development. It provides new perspectives and a profound understanding of photothermal materials in photothermal environmental governance and energy conversion.