Solar-fuel production by photodriven CO₂ reduction: facts, challenges, and recommendations

Abstract

Solar fuel production via CO₂ mitigation offers a potential approach for solving global energy demand. It is gaining much attention because of its sustainability and environmental friendliness. However, significant challenges remain in this field, including low efficiency, poor selectivity, and large-scale implementations. Despite the recent advancements in the field, optimizing photocatalysts, improving reaction pathways, and scaling up processes are the key obstacles. This Perspective focuses on a holistic approach to the current state of solar fuel production, highlights the challenges that hinder progress, and discusses several branches of solar fuel production that have emerged in light of the current obstacles. It critically surveys the recent literature and provides recommendations for future research on improving existing processes. Ultimately, we discuss scalable approaches for realizing large-scale solar fuel production and also describe the current policies and networks established to support the development of solar fuel technology for widespread implementation.