Abstract:

With the increase of CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions, seeking new energy sources to build a low carbon society has become more urgent since the 21st century. The conversion of CO₂ to valuable hydrocarbon fuel driven by solar energy is of great potential and promising to realize the global carbon balance. Exploring semiconductor materials is very important for the photoreduction of CO₂. Therefore, it will be the main research direction to fabricate highly efficient photocatalysis materials. This paper reviews recent research on photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to the hydrocarbon fuels in our groups, mainly focusing on nanostructure and component regulations of semiconductor catalysts, including TiO₂, V, W, Ge Ga based materials, C₃N₄ based and some other materials, for the photocatalytic reduction of CO₂.

Key words: Photocatalytic reduction, CO₂, Photocatalytic materials, Research progress