Promoting Photocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction by Tuning the Properties of Cocatalysts

Abstract

Suppressing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is an essential measure toward addressing global warming. Specifically, the photocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CRR) is an effective strategy because it affords the conversion of CO2 into useful carbon feedstocks by using sunlight and water. However, the practical application of photocatalyst‐promoting CRR (CRR photocatalysts) requires significant improvement of their conversion efficiency. Accordingly, extensive research is being conducted toward improving semiconductor photocatalysts, as well as cocatalysts that are loaded as active sites on the photocatalysts. In this review, we summarize recent research and development trends in the improvement of cocatalysts, which have a significant impact on the catalytic activity and selectivity of photocatalytic CRR. We expect that the advanced knowledge provided on the improvement of cocatalysts for CRR in this review will serve as a general guideline to accelerate the development of highly efficient CRR photocatalysts.

Size‐Dependent Carbon Dioxide Reduction Activity of Copper Nanoparticle and Nanocluster Electrocatalysts

“…Generally, relatively large‐sized Cu NPs are used for CRR electrocatalysts, but recent studies have reported that ultrafine ligand‐protected metal NCs with a particle size of ca. 1 nm can be used for various electrocatalysts [29] (including the CRR) [5a,b] and cocatalysts for photocatalysis [30] . A common feature of NCs is that many ligand‐protected metal NCs can be obtained as single crystals as well as metal complexes, [31] and their chemical compositions as well as geometric structures can be synthesized with atomically precise accuracy [32] .…”

Construction of novel Ag(0)-containing silver nanoclusters by regulating auxiliary phosphine ligands

“…Metal nanoclusters have attracted wide attention because of their atom-precise structures and quantum size effects, which provide an ideal platform for investigating the connection between simple metal complexes and bulk metal nanoparticles. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] In addition, their potential applications in optics, [17][18][19][20] catalysis, [21][22][23][24][25] and biomedicine [26][27][28] encourage us to synthesize novel structured nanoclusters to exploit versatile properties. Among these, nanoclusters with valence electron structures similar to atomic electron structures are considered "superatomic nanoclusters".…”

Utilization of CO2-captured poly(allylamine) as a polymer surfactant for nanoarchitecture production in a closed CO2 cycle

“…To reduce atmospheric CO 2 , numerous efforts employing various innovative methods have been made, including the reduction of CO 2 through photochemical, 17-19 electrochemical [20][21][22][23] and biological approaches 24 into valuable compounds such as formic acid, formaldehyde, methanol and hydrocarbons; the co-reduction with nitrate to produce urea; 25 the incorporation of CO 2 into polymer main chains via copolymerization; [26][27][28] and composting with biomass. 29,30 These methods offer new avenues for xing CO 2 and producing materials composed of it.…”