《Chem. Soc. Rev.》: Recent Progress for Solar-driven CO₂ Reduction into Multicarbon Products

Mengqian Li,⁺ Zequn Han,⁺ Qinyuan Hu,⁺ Wenya Fan, Qing Hu, Dongpo He, Qingxia Chen*, Xingchen Jiao*, and Yi Xie*

Currently, most catalysts used for photoconverting carbon dioxide (CO₂) typically produce C₁ products. Achieving multicarbon (C₂₊) products, which are highly desirable due to their greater energy density and economic potential, still remains a significant challenge. This difficulty is primarily due to the kinetic hurdles associated with the C–C coupling step in the process. Given this, devising diverse strategies to accelerate C−C coupling for generating multicarbon products is requisite. Herein, we first give a classification of catalysts involved in the photoconversion of CO₂ into C₂₊ fuels. We summarize the metallic oxides, metallic sulfides, MXenes, metal-organic frameworks as catalysts for CO₂ photoreduction into C₂₊ products, attributing their efficacy to the inherent dual active sites facilitating C−C coupling. In addition, we survey covalent organic frameworks, carbon nitride, metal phosphide, and graphene as cocatalysts for CO₂ photoreduction into C₂₊ products, owing to the incorporated dual active sites that induce C−C coupling. In the end, we provide a brief conclusion and an outlook on designing new photocatalysts, understanding the catalytic mechanisms, and considering the practical application requirements for photoconverting CO₂ into multicarbon products.

Figure 1. CO₂ photoreduction towards C₂₊ products over various materials, in which metallic oxides, metallic sulfides, MXenes, MOFs act as catalysts while COFs, C₃N₄, metal phosphide, and graphene serve as cocatalysts for boosted C−C coupling.