Photothermal Assisted Biomass Oxidation for Pairing Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction with Low Cell Potential.

Integrating anodic biomass valorization with carbon dioxide electroreduction (CORR) can produce value-added chemicals on both the cathode and anode; however, anodic oxidation still suffers from high overpotential. Herein, a photothermal-assisted method was developed to reduce the potential of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) electrooxidation. Capitalizing on the copious oxygen vacancies, defective CoO (D-CoO) exhibited a stronger photothermal effect, delivering a local temperature of 175.