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.