Ingenious Fabrication of CuO/ZnO Hollow Nanoheterojunctions for Efficient CO ₂ Hydrogenation with High CO Yield and Selectivity

The development of highly efficient and stable catalysts is a key challenge for realizing the resource utilization of CO₂. In this paper, metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived CuO/ZnO hollow nanoheterojunction catalysts were successfully prepared. Under relatively low temperature and atmospheric pressure, this catalyst achieves a CO yield of 4.91 mmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹ in photothermal catalytic CO₂ reduction, which is a 405- and 615-fold enhancement over pure ZnO (12.11 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹) and ZnO-SSR (7.98 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹), respectively, and a CO selectivity as high as 99.85%. The ZIF-8-derived architecture provides abundant active sites, with its hollow structure significantly enhancing light absorption and mass transport efficiency. The p-n nanoheterojunction effectively narrows the bandgap and suppresses electron-hole recombination, while the photothermal synergy accelerates molecular diffusion and reduces reaction energy barriers, collectively contributing to the enhanced product yield and selectivity.