The production of solar methanol, directly from gaseous CO₂ and H₂, is important for the development of a sustainable energy economy. Despite growing activity in the field, very few photocatalysts exist that can efficiently and stably hydrogenate gaseous CO₂ to methanol at ambient pressure with high selectivity. Here, we report that a defect-laden indium oxide, In₂O_3−x(OH)_y, with a rod-like nanocrystal superstructure, can photocatalyze the hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol with 50% selectivity under simulated solar irradiation. Notably, the solar methanol production of the In₂O_3−x(OH)_y nanocrystal superstructures can be stabilized at a rate of 0.06 mmol g_cat⁻¹ h⁻¹ at atmospheric pressure. This is 120 times higher than that of the best-known photocatalysts. This discovery bodes well for the development of a low-pressure solar methanol process using CO₂ and renewable H₂ feedstocks.

直接从气态CO ₂和H ₂生产太阳能甲醇对于发展可持续的能源经济非常重要。尽管在该领域中活性不断提高，但很少有能在环境压力下以高选择性将气态CO ₂有效稳定地加氢成甲醇的光催化剂。在这里，我们报道了带有棒状纳米晶体超结构的负载有缺陷的氧化铟In ₂ O _3-x（OH）_y在模拟太阳辐射下可以以50％的选择性光催化CO ₂氢化成甲醇。值得注意的是，In ₂ O _3-x（OH）_y的太阳甲醇生产纳米晶体超结构可以在大气压下以0.06 mmol g _cat ^-1 h ^-1的速率稳定化。这是最著名的光催化剂的120倍。这一发现对于使用CO ₂和可再生H ₂原料的低压太阳能甲醇工艺的开发是一个好兆头。