Jing Xuechen, Sun Zhehao, Yin Hang, Liu Kaili, Chen Yi-Lun, Cheng Shuwen, Yin Zongyou
Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2601, Australia.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2025 Sep;12(34):e08046. doi: 10.1002/advs.202508046. Epub 2025 Jul 21.
To address global challenges in sustainable energy and water treatment, metamaterials have emerged as a transformative class of materials for solar-driven photocatalysis. Through nanoscale engineering, these artificially structured materials enable precise manipulation of light-matter interactions and significantly enhance solar energy utilization beyond the limits of conventional photocatalysts. This review systematically summarizes recent progress in applying metamaterials to solar-driven processes for energy conversion and water treatment, including photocatalytic CO reduction, water splitting for hydrogen generation, degradation of organic pollutants, and solar-driven water evaporation for purification. Key enhancement mechanisms include localized surface plasmon resonance, photonic bandgap engineering, and improved charge separation via metamaterial and semiconductor heterojunctions, which collectively improve light absorption, charge separation and transfer, and surface reactivity. Practical challenges related to scalable fabrication, long-term durability, and integration into real-world systems are also examined. Finally, emerging directions, including AI-assisted inverse design, structural chirality, and multifunctional hybrid architectures, are discussed as promising strategies to further advance metamaterial-based photocatalysts in sustainable energy and environmental applications.
为应对可持续能源和水处理方面的全球挑战，超材料已成为用于太阳能驱动光催化的一类变革性材料。通过纳米尺度工程，这些人工结构化材料能够精确操控光与物质的相互作用，并显著提高太阳能利用效率，超越传统光催化剂的极限。本综述系统总结了将超材料应用于太阳能驱动的能量转换和水处理过程的最新进展，包括光催化CO还原、水分解制氢、有机污染物降解以及太阳能驱动水蒸发净化。关键增强机制包括局域表面等离子体共振、光子带隙工程以及通过超材料与半导体异质结改善电荷分离，这些机制共同提高了光吸收、电荷分离与转移以及表面反应性。还研究了与可扩展制造、长期耐久性以及集成到实际系统相关的实际挑战。最后，讨论了新兴方向，包括人工智能辅助逆向设计、结构手性和多功能混合架构，作为在可持续能源和环境应用中进一步推进基于超材料的光催化剂的有前景策略。
