Advanced Nanostructured Materials for Solar-Driven CO2 Photocatalytic Conversion: Progress, Mechanisms, and Future Perspectives
- 1Department of Chemical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31216, Saudi Arabia
- 2Interdisciplinary Research Center of Hydrogen Technologies and Carbon Management, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31216, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Solar-driven photocatalytic carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion offers a sustainable pathway for mitigating anthropogenic CO2 emissions while simultaneously producing value-added fuels and chemicals using renewable solar energy. However, practical implementation remains constrained by the thermodynamic stability of CO2, inefficient visible-light utilization, rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers, sluggish interfacial reaction kinetics, and limited product selectivity. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent progress in nanostructured photocatalysts for efficient solar-driven CO2 conversion, emphasizing material design, charge-transfer mechanisms, and structure–activity relationships. Fundamental aspects of CO2 adsorption, activation, thermodynamics, photogenerated charge separation, proton-coupled electron transfer, and reaction pathways toward carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), methanol (CH3OH), and multi-carbon products are discussed. Particular attention is devoted to emerging photocatalytic platforms, including metal–organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, MXenes, graphitic carbon nitride, graphene-based materials, and carbon quantum dots. Recent synthetic and modification strategies involving dimensionality control, defect and surface engineering, heteroatom doping, cocatalyst incorporation, and interfacial coupling are critically examined. Advanced type-II, Z-scheme, S-scheme, and multicomponent heterojunctions are further highlighted for their ability to improve visible-light harvesting, preserve strong redox potentials, facilitate directional charge migration, and suppress electron–hole recombination. The mechanistic roles of active sites, surface vacancies, built-in electric fields, and reaction intermediates in governing catalytic activity and selectivity are also evaluated. Finally, persistent challenges associated with quantum efficiency, product selectivity, photocatalyst stability, mechanistic understanding, scalable synthesis, and practical reactor integration are outlined, together with future directions toward efficient, durable, selective, and commercially viable artificial photosynthetic systems for sustainable solar-fuel production.
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BibTeX
@article{aizaz2026advanced,
title = {{Advanced Nanostructured Materials for Solar-Driven CO2 Photocatalytic Conversion: Progress, Mechanisms, and Future Perspectives}},
author = {Umer Aizaz and Mohd Asad Ansari and Sagheer A. Onaizi},
journal = {Catalysts},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/catal16100902},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4344/16/10/902},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Advanced Nanostructured Materials for Solar-Driven CO2 Photocatalytic Conversion: Progress, Mechanisms, and Future Perspectives
AU - Umer Aizaz
AU - Mohd Asad Ansari
AU - Sagheer A. Onaizi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - Catalysts
DO - 10.3390/catal16100902
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4344/16/10/902
AB - Solar-driven photocatalytic carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion offers a sustainable pathway for mitigating anthropogenic CO2 emissions while simultaneously producing value-added fuels and chemicals using renewable solar energy. However, practical implementation remains constrained by the thermodynamic stability of CO2, inefficient visible-light utilization, rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers, sluggish interfacial reaction kinetics, and limited product selectivity. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent progress in nanostructured photocatalysts for efficient solar-driven CO2 conversion, emphasizing material design, charge-transfer mechanisms, and structure–activity relationships. Fundamental aspects of CO2 adsorption, activation, thermodynamics, photogenerated charge separation, proton-coupled electron transfer, and reaction pathways toward carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), methanol (CH3OH), and multi-carbon products are discussed. Particular attention is devoted to emerging photocatalytic platforms, including metal–organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, MXenes, graphitic carbon nitride, graphene-based materials, and carbon quantum dots. Recent synthetic and modification strategies involving dimensionality control, defect and surface engineering, heteroatom doping, cocatalyst incorporation, and interfacial coupling are critically examined. Advanced type-II, Z-scheme, S-scheme, and multicomponent heterojunctions are further highlighted for their ability to improve visible-light harvesting, preserve strong redox potentials, facilitate directional charge migration, and suppress electron–hole recombination. The mechanistic roles of active sites, surface vacancies, built-in electric fields, and reaction intermediates in governing catalytic activity and selectivity are also evaluated. Finally, persistent challenges associated with quantum efficiency, product selectivity, photocatalyst stability, mechanistic understanding, scalable synthesis, and practical reactor integration are outlined, together with future directions toward efficient, durable, selective, and commercially viable artificial photosynthetic systems for sustainable solar-fuel production.
SN - 2073-4344
ER -