Recent Advances in polyoxometalates for photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction

Abstract

With the growing global demand for energy and the increasingly serious problem of environmental pollution, the search for clean and sustainable ways of energy conversion and storage has become a hot topic in current scientific research and technology development. Photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction (PCR) has attracted much attention in recent years as a technology capable of converting solar energy into chemical energy while achieving carbon cycling and mitigating the greenhouse effect. PCR offers the ability to convert solar energy into chemical energy through an environmentally friendly and efficient process, while promoting energy storage and carbon reduction, an innovation that has great potential to alleviate energy shortages and ameliorate environmental degradation. Polyoxometalates (POMs) show great potential for photocatalytic CO2 reduction applications due to their unique structural properties, excellent redox capacity and tunable light absorption. This paper reviews the research progress of polyoxometalates in photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction, including the basic properties of POMs, synthesis methods, mechanism of photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction, design and synthesis of POMs-based catalysts, optimisation of their performance, and practical applications. There has now been a steady increase in publications and cited literature in this research area over the past decade. However, despite the growing literature, a comprehensive and in-depth review of the modification strategies, theoretical foundations, physicochemical properties and atomic level understanding of POMs materials is still rare. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework for the development and refinement of POMs materials in the field of photocatalytic CO2 reduction.