Utilising light and heat from the sun to drive CO₂ reduction into CH₄ is an effective approach to produce solar fuels. The effect of visible light illumination on the CO₂ methanation reaction, when catalysed by Co₁₀/La_x-TiO₂, was explored. The results demonstrated that homogeneously dispersing lanthanum on the surface of TiO₂ boosted the catalytic activity of Co deposits under both non-illuminated (dark) and illuminated conditions. Illuminating the catalyst with a white LED (420 < λ < 800 nm) during the reaction lowered the activation energy and increased CO₂ conversion over the temperature range 250–450 °C. The most significant effect was observed for Co₁₀/La₁₀-TiO₂ where the activation energy was decreased by 20 % and the CO₂ conversion enhanced by 86 % at 350 °C. It was found that the basic sites introduced by La enhanced CO₂ adsorption and facilitated its activation. The present work illustrates how traditional thermal catalysts can be effectively modified to harness photoabsorption/plasmonic properties.

利用来自太阳的光和热将CO ₂还原成CH ₄是生产太阳能的有效方法。探索了可见光照射对Co ₁₀ / La _x -TiO ₂催化的CO ₂甲烷化反应的影响。结果表明，在非光照（暗）和光照条件下，镧均匀地分散在TiO ₂的表面上都提高了Co沉积物的催化活性。反应期间用白色LED（420 <λ<800 nm）照射催化剂降低了活化能并增加了CO ₂在250–450°C的温度范围内转换。对于Co ₁₀ / La ₁₀ -TiO ₂，观察到了最显着的效果，其中在350°C下活化能降低了20％，CO ₂转化率提高了86％。发现由La引入的碱性位点增强了CO ₂吸附并促进了其活化。本工作说明了如何可以有效地修改传统的热催化剂，以利用光吸收/等离子体性能。