Unlocking Carbon Dioxide Photoreduction Potential of Graphene-Derived Catalysts: Mechanisms, Product Selectivity, and Challenges

Abstract

The escalating concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere necessitates innovative strategies to address global warming and simultaneously harness its potential as a valuable resource. To offset CO2 emissions, heterogenous photocatalysis emerges as a promising technology to photochemically reduce CO2 into value-added chemicals using specially designed photocatalysts. However, photocatalysts mediating CO2 photoreduction often encounter some intrinsic challenges like low specific surface area, inefficient charge separation, narrow visible light absorption, and inadequate stability. Graphene-based materials has emerged as a probable solution to address these hurdles, providing enormous specific surface area, excellent electron mobility, and robust chemical stability, which collectively enhance CO2 conversion efficiency and ensure durable photocatalyst performance. This review delves into the forefront of visible light assisted photocatalytic reduction of CO2, with a particular focus on graphene-based photocatalysts. The goal is to uncover sustainable solutions that utilize visible light to catalyze the reduction of CO2, offering an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels, while simultaneously acting as a carbon sink by capturing atmospheric CO2. This review canvasses the constraints and challenges of graphene-based composites, encompassing their synthesis techniques and performance efficacy, and provides an outlook on the various product selectivity during CO2 photoreduction. A brief overview of the potential products obtained from CO2 photoreduction, with an insight into their plausible mechanism for the production of solar fuel and value-added chemicals, is summarized. This timely review, therefore, aspires to expatiate the recent advances in CO2 capture and sequestration using graphene-based heterogeneous photocatalysis.