Recent Trends in Light-Assisted Reactions for CO₂ Conversion to Fuels and Chemicals

Dear Colleagues,

The conventional production processes for chemical products generally have a high energy requirement and produce CO₂ emissions, contributing to global warming, climate change, and the depletion of fossil fuels. Therefore, the search for ecologically sustainable processes that are able to not only capture CO₂ but also convert it into useful products represents a key challenge for the current and future chemical industry. A possible green approach to transforming CO₂ into useful compounds involves the use of photocatalyzed reactions, which, thanks to suitable semiconductors, can work under atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature. In this context, the prospect of converting CO₂ into viable feedstocks for chemicals and fuels offers both a carbon-neutral manufacturing process cycle and the potential to achieve an economically significant reduction in atmospheric CO₂ when applied on a global scale using renewable energy resources, such as photocatalytic technologies.

Generally, strategies for the development of innovative photocatalysts for CO₂ conversion are focused on increasing selectivity towards the desired product. This can be achieved by doping the semiconductor lattice with metal and/or non-metal elements in order to reduce the band gap energy, allowing the semiconductor to absorb light. Other interesting options include the formulation of heterojunctions to increase the concentration of photoactive surface sites or the development of alternative catalytic materials, such as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs).

This Special Issue will be focused on “Recent trends in light-assisted reactions for CO₂ conversion to fuels and chemicals”, featuring the state of the art in this field. We welcome the submission of research and review papers related to the preparation and characterization of novel catalytic materials and their use in visible (or solar light) light-driven photocatalytic reactions for the conversion of CO₂ to fuels (such as CH₄ and CO) and/or useful organic compounds (such as formic acid and methanol).

Dr. Antonietta Mancuso
Dr. Vincenzo Vaiano
Dr. Olga Sacco
Guest Editors

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• CO₂ conversion
• photocatalysis, visible or solar light
• doped and co-doped semiconductors
• heterojunctions
• metal–organic framework (MOFs)
• fuel production
• organic compound synthesis