Niobium and Titanium Carbides (MXenes) as Superior Photothermal Supports for CO Photocatalysis.

The conversion of CO into fuels and feedstock chemicals photothermal catalysis holds promise for efficient solar energy utilization to tackle the global energy shortage and climate change. Despite recent advances, it is of emerging interest to explore promising materials with excellent photothermal properties to boost the performance of photothermal CO catalysis. Here, we report the discovery of MXene materials as superior photothermal supports for metal nanoparticles. As a proof-of-concept study, we demonstrate that NbC and TiC, two typical MXene materials, can enhance the photothermal effect and thus boost the photothermal catalytic activity of Ni nanoparticles. A record CO conversion rate of 8.50 mol·g·h is achieved for NbC-nanosheet-supported Ni nanoparticles under intense illumination. Our study bridges the gap between photothermal MXene materials and photothermal CO catalysis toward more efficient solar-to-chemical energy conversions and stimulates the interest in MXene-supported metal nanoparticles for other heterogeneous catalytic reactions, particularly driven by sunlight.