Photo-thermal CO₂ reduction with methane (CRM) is beneficial for solar energy harvesting and energy storage. The search for efficient photo-thermal catalysts is of great significance. Here, we reveal that group VIII metal catalysts supported by optical material WO₃ are more effective for photo-thermal CRM, giving catalytic activities with visible light assistance that are 1.4–2.4 times higher than that achieved under thermal conditions. The activity enhancement (1.4–2.4 times) was comparable to that achieved with plasmonic-Au-promoted catalysts (1.7 times). Characterization results indicated that WO₃ was partially reduced to WO_3–x in situ under the reductive CRM reaction atmosphere, and that WO_3–x rather than WO₃ enhanced the activities with visible light assistance. Our method provides a promising approach for improving the activity of catalysts under light irradiation.

用甲烷 (CRM) 进行光热 CO ₂还原有利于太阳能收集和能量存储。寻找高效的光热催化剂具有重要意义。在这里，我们揭示了由光学材料 WO ₃负载的第 VIII 族金属催化剂对光热 CRM 更有效，在可见光辅助下的催化活性比热条件下的催化活性高 1.4-2.4 倍。活性增强（1.4-2.4 倍）与等离子体金促进的催化剂（1.7 倍）相当。表征结果表明，WO ₃被部分WO降低至_{3- X} 原位还原反应CRM气氛下，并且WO _3-x而不是 WO ₃增强了可见光辅助下的活动。我们的方法为提高光照射下催化剂的活性提供了一种有前景的方法。