Solar energy provides an alternative, sustainable, and clean source of energy to meet the global energy demands without extra carbon emissions. However, the utilization efficiency of sunlight via most traditional photocatalytic processes remains relatively low. Photothermal catalysis, combining the advantages of photocatalysis and thermocatalysis, has emerged as a new fast-growing research area. In this review, we first discuss three different mechanisms of photothermal effects and then describe the functioning principles of photothermal catalysis. We categorize the photothermal catalysts into three types based on their specific coupling modes of thermochemical and photochemical pathways. We also illustrate the catalyst design strategies and characterization methods for photothermal catalysis. As specific examples of applications, we summarize the recent research progress on the photothermal catalytic reactions for CO₂ conversion, CH₄ activation, NH₃ synthesis, and water splitting. Last, we present the challenges and perspectives in this field, as a guide for future development in photothermal catalysis.

太阳能提供了一种替代的、可持续的、清洁的能源，可以在不产生额外碳排放的情况下满足全球能源需求。然而，通过大多数传统的光催化过程对阳光的利用效率仍然相对较低。光热催化结合了光催化和热催化的优点，已成为一个新的快速发展的研究领域。在这篇综述中，我们首先讨论了三种不同的光热效应机制，然后描述了光热催化的功能原理。我们根据热化学和光化学途径的特定耦合模式将光热催化剂分为三种类型。我们还说明了光热催化的催化剂设计策略和表征方法。作为应用的具体例子，₂转化、CH ₄活化、NH ₃合成和水分解。最后，我们介绍了该领域的挑战和前景，作为光热催化未来发展的指南。