Abstract
Photocatalytic CO2 conversion is vital technology to realize global carbon neutrality and generate future energy supplies. This review proposes fundamentals, challenges, strategies, and prospects for photocatalytic CO2 conversion research.
Highlights
We provide a thorough overview of both traditional photocatalysts such as metal oxides and state-of-the-art catalysts such as metal–organic frameworks and 2D materials, followed by a discussion of the origin of carbon in CO2 photoreduction as a means to further understand the reaction mechanism
A variety of heterostructures and hybrid combinations have been developed to improve the stability of the Cu2O catalyst; for example, the formation of Cu2O/TiO2 heterostructures was reported to protect the Cu2O from photocorrosion.[43]
A Pt@Cu2O core–shell structured bimetallic system was studied, where the Cu2O shell activated the CO2 molecules to enable photocatalytic CO2 conversion in the presence of H2O, while the Pt core acted as an electron trap to extract electrons from TiO2.128 The Cu2O shell on the Pt core suppressed the reduction reaction of H2O to H2, which otherwise competes with the CO2 reduction reaction, thereby increasing the CO2 conversion activity
Summary
The solar-light-driven conversion of the ubiquitous waste product CO2 to chemical fuels in the gas phase has become a hot topic of research. To complete the energy conversion process, the survived electrons and holes are transferred to surface-adsorbed CO2 and H2O molecules, respectively, resulting in a simultaneous reduction–oxidation reaction to afford the solar fuel (step IV). Because the recombination of electrons and holes is much faster than the process of charge transfer and consumption at the catalyst interface, the lifetime of the photoexcited electrons must be sufficiently long for completion of the redox reaction. Because the reduction process entails several complex steps, it is not as straightforward as it may initially appear, with particular challenges being (i) limited light absorption, (ii) charge recombination, (iii) adsorption/activation of CO2 molecules, (iv) photostability of the catalyst materials, (v) development of a facile and reasonable synthetic process, and (vi) underlying mechanism/C1 and C2 selectivity (Fig. 2). We will briefly discuss these challenges of photocatalytic CO2 conversion in the remainder of this section
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