Abstract
Using renewable energy to convert CO2 to a clean fuel ethanol can not only reduce carbon emission through the utilization of CO2 as feedstock, but also store renewable energy as the widely used chemical and high-energy-density fuel, being considered as a perfect strategy to address current environment and energy issues. Developing efficient electrocatalysts, photocatalysts, and photoelectrocatalysts for CO2 reduction is the most crucial keystone for achieving this goal. Considerable progresses in CO2-based ethanol production have been made over the past decades. This review provides the general principles and summarizes the latest advancements in electrocatalytic, photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic CO2 conversion to ethanol. Furthermore, the main challenges and proposed future prospects are illustrated for further developments in clean fuel ethanol production.
Highlights
With the fast development of the economy and society, the ever-increasing demand for energy all over the world while the limited fossil fuel resources lead to an aggravated energy crisis [1,2].The huge consumption of fossil fuels causes the constantly accumulating of CO2 in the atmosphere
The CO2 photoreduction process generally undergo four major steps: (1) CO2 molecules are chemically adsorbed on the surface of photocatalysts; (2) under light illumination, the electrons of semiconductor photocatalysts can be excited by photons from valence band (VB) to conduction band (CB), leaving an equal number of holes in the VB; (3) the photogenerated electrons are separated from holes and migrate to the photocatalyst surface; (4) the electrons are used to activate and reduce CO2 into solar fuels, while the holes are consumed by the oxidation of H2 O [32]
Photoelectrocatalytic reduction of CO2 is considered as an integration of photocatalytic and electrocatalytic CO2 reduction, where the solar energy and electricity synergistically promotes the conversion of CO2 to clean fuels
Summary
With the fast development of the economy and society, the ever-increasing demand for energy all over the world while the limited fossil fuel resources lead to an aggravated energy crisis [1,2]. Since the catalytic activity and selectivity are mainly determined by for the reduction of CO2 to ethanol in the categories of electrochemical, photochemical and the structures and surface states of catalysts as well as the reaction conditions, the second section of this photoelectrochemical approaches. Since the catalytic activity and selectivity are mainly determined review provides the general principles of electroreduction, photoreduction and photoelectroreduction by the structures and surface states of catalysts as well as the reaction conditions, the second section of CO2 , as well as the theoretical foundation for ethanol production. A short prospect is given of of this review provides the general principles of electroreduction, photoreduction and the challenges and new directions in the development of efficient CO2 reduction to solar fuel ethanol. A short prospect is given of the challenges and new directions in the development of efficient CO2 reduction to solar fuel ethanol
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