Systematic Assessment of Solvent Selection in Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction

Replacing Ru complex with carbon dots over MOF-derived Co3O4/In2O3 catalyst for efficient solar-driven CO2 reduction

“…1–3 The photocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction suffers from poor activity and product selectivity, as a result of the complex multi-electron transfer path involved. 4–7 Considerable efforts have been made to enhance the photocatalytic CO 2 reduction activity, such as using photosensitizer and/or cocatalyst modification, 8 morphology engineering, 9 doping 10 and heterojunction construction. 11 Among these, the addition of photosensitizer, which can boost the charge transfer efficiency and provide more active sties to activate photocatalytic molecules, has, so far, been widely investigated.…”

Current dilemma in photocatalytic CO2 reduction: real solar fuel production or false positive outcomings?

“…Sebastian C. Peter group recently investigated the effects of solvents on the product selectivity and activity of catalyst during photocatalytic CO 2 reduction, and demonstrated that the photolysis of CH 3 CN, ethyl acetate (EAA), TEA, and TEOA under UV-visible light irradiation without the presence of any catalysts can produce CO, CH 4 , ethylene (C 2 H 4 ), and H 2 , resulting in the overestimation of catalytic activities or even false positive results [49]. Notably, care must be taken when choosing chemical additives and/or hole scavengers for photocatalytic CO 2 reduction research (Fig.…”

“…) pose a huge challenge in the identification and quantification of the real reduction products [42,43]. Particularly, it has been reported that both the organic substances involved in the preparation of photocatalysts [44][45][46][47][48] and the decomposition products of sacrificial reagents and/or reaction additives [49][50][51] may decompose to small molecules, such as hydrogen (H 2 ), CO, and methane (CH 4 ), causing the overestimation of catalytic activities or even false positive results. In this regard, isotopic 13 CO 2 labelling experiments are suggested to verify whether the carbon-containing products are derived from CO 2 or carbonaceous impurities [10,36,40,52].…”

Vergleichende Evaluierung lichtgetriebener Katalyse: Ein Rahmenkonzept für das standardisierte Berichten von Daten**

“…[49][50][51] Die Art des Lösungsmittels und der pH-Wert der Lösung beeinflussen die Löslichkeiten und Stabilität der Komponenten sowie ihre Wechselwirkungen. Das Lösungsmittel selbst kann an den Reaktionen teilnehmen (und tut dies auch regelmäßig), entweder indem es ein dielektrisches, polarisierbares Medium für die Reaktion bildet [52] oder durch intermolekulare Wechselwirkungen (z. B. Koordination) mit reaktiven Spezies.…”

“…[35] Lösungsmittel können sogar als Elektronendonoren oder -akzeptoren wirken und dadurch die Photoredox-Prozesse beeinflussen. [52,53] Temperatur und Druck des Reaktionssystems müssen überwacht und dokumentiert werden, insbesondere bei biphasischen Gas-Flüssig-Reaktionen, da Temperatur- [54] und Druckänderungen [55] einen großen Einfluss auf die photochemische Reaktivität haben können.…”