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 CO 2 . 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 CO 2 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.