Fundamentals and Challenges of Engineering Charge Polarized Active Sites for CO₂ Photoreduction toward C₂ Products

Abstract

Conspectus Global warming and climatic deterioration are partly caused by carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. Given this, CO2 reduction into valuable carbonaceous fuels is a win–win route to simultaneously alleviate the greenhouse effect and the energy crisis, where CO2 reduction into hydrocarbon fuels by solar energy may be a potential strategy. Up to now, most of the current photocatalysts photoconvert CO2 to C1 products. It is extremely difficult to achieve production of C2 products, which have higher economic value and energy density, due to the kinetic challenge of C–C coupling of the C1 intermediates. Therefore, to realize CO2 photoreduction to C2 fuels, design of high-activity photocatalysts to expedite the C–C coupling is significant. Besides, the current mechanism for CO2 photoreduction toward C2 fuels is usually uncertain, which is possibly attributed to the following two reasons: (1) It is arduous to determine the actual catalytic sites for the C–C coupling step. (2) It is hard to monitor the low-concentration active intermediates during the multielectron transfer step. Most traditional metal-based photocatalysts usually possess charge balanced active sites that have the same charge density. In this aspect, the neighboring C1 intermediates may also show the same charge distribution, which would lead to dipole–dipole repulsion, thus preventing C–C coupling for producing C2 fuels. By contrast, photocatalysts with charge polarized active sites possess obviously different charge distributions in the adjacent C1 intermediates, which can effectively suppress the electrostatic repulsion to steer the C–C coupling. Based on this analysis, higher asymmetric charge density on the active sites would be more beneficial to anchoring between the adjacent intermediates and active atoms in catalysts, which can boost C–C coupling. In this Account, we summarize various strategies, including vacancy engineering, doping engineering, loading engineering, and heterojunction engineering, for tailoring charge polarized active sites to boost the C–C coupling for the first time. Also, we overview diverse in situ characterization technologies, such as in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, in situ Raman spectroscopy, and in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, for determining charge polarized active sites and monitoring reaction intermediates, helping to reveal the internal catalytic mechanism of CO2 photoreduction toward C2 products. We hope this Account may help readers to understand the crucial function of charge polarized active sites during CO2 photoreduction toward C2 products and provide guidance for designing and preparing highly active catalysts for photocatalytic CO2 reduction.

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