Recent Progress in Materials Exploration for Thermocatalytic, Photocatalytic, and Integrated Photothermocatalytic CO₂‐to‐Fuel Conversion

Abstract

The excess depletion of carbon‐rich fossil fuels and agroforest biomass resources has aggravated the energy crisis and environmental pollution, causing increased CO2 emissions. Accordingly, the goal of “peak CO2 emissions and carbon neutrality” is proposed to alleviate global warming. CO2‐to‐fuel conversion is considered as a preferable move for reducing the atmospheric CO2 concentration and further upgrading to chemical feedstocks. However, the highly efficient CO2 conversion remains challenging due to the thermodynamic limits and kinetic barriers, which require high energy input through conventional thermocatalysis. Inspired by “artificial photosynthesis,” photocatalytic CO2 transformation has received tremendous attention and makes remarkable progress over the past decades, although it is still far from practical application. Recently, the integrated photothermocatalysis has emerged as an intelligent strategy to utilize solar energy to induce local heating and energetic hot carriers, which synergistically promote CO2‐to‐fuel conversion. The key to the success of CO2 upgradation is catalysts’ development with improved activity, selectivity, and stability. This review highlights the recent advancements in materials designing for practical CO2 conversion through thermocatalysis, photocatalysis, and photothermocatalysis during the past five years, emphasizing the reaction pathways and mechanism on the CO bond activation and intermediates formation. Finally, the current challenges and future opportunities are described.

Recent Progress in Two-Dimensional Materials for Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction

“…Zhu et al reviewed the latest progress on developing 2D materials for ECR from the perspective of theoretical simulation and discussed the reaction mechanisms of various 2D materials for ECR [53]. Zhang et al reviewed recent advances on materials development for CO 2 conversion by thermocatalysis, photocatalysis and photothermocatalysis, highlighting the reaction pathways and mechanism on C=O bond activation and intermediate formation [54]. Very recently, they also summarized CO 2 conversion by electro-and photoelectrocatalysis, emphasizing the importance of operando characterization theoretical simulations [55].…”

CO2 Hydrogenation on Metal-Organic Frameworks-Based Catalysts: A Mini Review

“…Through the rational design of high efficient catalysts, these reactions can be performed under relatively mild conditions that considerably decrease the energy consumption ( Liu et al, 2012 ; Handoko et al, 2013 ; Jhong et al, 2013 ; Wang et al, 2015 ; Perathoner and Centi, 2019 ; Wang J.-J. et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2022a ). Nevertheless, the electro-catalysis or photo-catalysis for CO 2 conversion is time or geographically dependent, which, thus, decreases their economic viability.…”

Design and In Situ Growth of Cu2O‐Blended Heterojunction Directed by Energy‐Band Engineering: Toward High Photoelectrochemical Performance

“…[ 1–5 ] As the core of the PEC cell, the photoelectrode is composed of a photoanode and a photocathode, which drives the oxygen evolution reaction (OER, +1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER, 0 V vs RHE), respectively. [ 1–3 ]…”

“…Among various hydrogen production strategies, photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has attracted much attention due to its high abundance of water, high purity of generated H 2 , and great reduction of CO 2 emission. [1][2][3][4][5] As the core of the PEC cell, the photoelectrode is composed of a photoanode and a photo cathode, which drives the oxygen evolution reaction (OER, +1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER, 0 V vs RHE), respectively. [1][2][3] At present, both photoanode and photo cathode are facing severe challenges.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5] As the core of the PEC cell, the photoelectrode is composed of a photoanode and a photo cathode, which drives the oxygen evolution reaction (OER, +1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER, 0 V vs RHE), respectively. [1][2][3] At present, both photoanode and photo cathode are facing severe challenges. Among them, photocathode is mainly restricted by the few types of ptype semiconductors (SCs), which need to be improved.…”