Photocatalytic conversion of CO2 using earth-abundant catalysts: A review on mechanism and catalytic performance

One of the major challenges in the development of cost-effective and efficient solar fuel generation is the scarcity of highly active, cheap and abundant molecular catalysts. Most of the current potent catalysts for photocatalytic conversion of CO2 are the second and third-row transition metal-based molecular systems that often make unfeasible large-scale production. This article reviews the current progress of photocatalytic conversion of CO2 using earth-abundant catalysts. In this review, fundamental aspects in the mechanism of CO2 conversion are comprehensively highlighted. This review also covers photocatalytic performance, efficiency and selectivity of several types of earth-abundant catalysts such as Fe, Ni, Co, Mn, and Cu-based catalysts. In general, the most recent scenarios suggested that there is still plenty of opportunities and prospects for further investigation to develop various collections of earth-abundant catalysts with better efficiency and selectivity. Additionally, this article also presents several main challenges and some future prospects for the implementation of large-scale photocatalytic conversion of CO2 using earth-abundant catalysts for solar fuel generation.