Effective CO2 activation of enriched oxygen vacancies for photothermal CO2 methanation

Oxygen vacancies have been widely concerned with the facilitation effects of CO 2 activation for CO 2 methanation. However, little attention has been paid to the generation of active intermediate species induced by enriched oxygen vacancies. Herein, we discovered that CeNiO 3− δ catalyst enriched oxygen vacancies can efficiently activate CO 2 and realize high activity for photothermal CO 2 methanation. In situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) proved that oxygen vacancies are beneficial to the formation of reactive intermediate species of polydentate carbonate over CeNiO 3− δ , which is crucial for efficient CO 2 methanation. These results revealed mechanistic insights into how effective CO 2 activation induced by oxygen vacancies can be manipulated by adjusting the adsorption intermediate species.