CHAPTER 13: New Materials for CO2 Photoreduction
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Published:17 Mar 2016
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Series: Energy and Environment
Y. Zhou, W. Tu, and Z. Zou, in Photocatalysis: Fundamentals and Perspectives, ed. J. Schneider, D. Bahnemann, J. Ye, G. Li Puma, D. D. Dionysiou, J. Schneider, ... D. D. Dionysiou, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016, pp. 318-347.
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Carbon neutral renewable fuels generated from solar-driven CO2 reduction have the potential to be a clean, sustainable, and abundant energy source. Inspired by natural photosynthesis in green plants, photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into hydrocarbon fuels couples the reductive half-reaction of CO2 fixation with a matched oxidative half-reaction such as water oxidation to achieve a carbon neutral cycle, mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions and the depletion of future fossil fuel. The scientific challenge is to develop a class of photocatalysts made of earth abundant, low cost, non-toxic, sunlight stable and highly active materials. This chapter introduces state-of-the-art research activities of design of new photocatalytic materials from the point of light harvesting, adsorption of reactants, charge separation and transport, and CO2 activation. The challenges and prospects for future development of this field are also presented.