Sub-nanomaterials for Photo/Electro-catalytic CO₂ Reduction: Achievements, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract

With the increasing dilemma of energy crisis and climate change caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions, it is an effective way to design low-cost and efficient catalysts to recycle CO₂ into value-added chemicals and fuels to solve these problems. Downsizing catalysts close to a single crystal cell, sub-nanomaterials(SNMs) show unique size-dependent properties and great potential applications in CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) compared with conventional nanomaterials. In this review, basic principles of CO₂RR and brief classification of SNMs are elucidated. Then, recent advances of SNMs in photo/electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction are comprehensively summarized. Finally, the current challenges and future outlooks are emphasized to pave the development of CO₂RR on SNMs. It is anticipated that this review would provide new insights to this unique scale and guided information on rational construction of SNMs for photo/electrocatalytic CO₂RR.

Keywords

Sub-nanomaterial / CO₂ reduction / Electrocatalysis / Photocatalysis / Photoelectrocatalysis

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