Photocatalytic CO2 reduction using non-titanium metal oxides and sulfides

[EN] Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is by far the most widely used photocatalyst both for the degradation of pollutants and in the field of renewable energies for the production of solar fuels. However, TiO2 has strong limitations in CO2 reduction, particularly under visible light irradiation. The flat-band potential of electrons in the conduction band of TiO2 is lower than that required for CO2 reduction and, therefore, it seems appropriate to develop and validate materials other than TiO2. In addition, the photoresponse of TiO2 requires photons of wavelengths in the UV range shorter than 380 nm and strategies to implement a visible-light photoresponse on TiO2 by doping have not been completely satisfactory particularly because of problems in reproducibility and stability of the materials. For these reasons, we focus in this Review on semiconductors other than TiO2 that show photocatalytic activity in CO2 reduction. Attention has been paid to the irradiation conditions to put the productivity data into context. The role of co-catalyst and heterojunctions to increase the efficiency of charge separation is also discussed. Our aim is to describe the state of the art in the field of photocatalytic CO2 reduction using materials other than TiO 2, trying to trigger further research in this area.Financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Consolider Multicat and CTQ2012-32315) is gratefully acknowledged. S.N. is also thankful to Universidad Politecnica de Valencia for being awarded an associate professorship under the program Cantera.Navalón Oltra, S.; Dhakshinamoorthy, A.; Alvaro Rodríguez, MM.; García Gómez, H. (2013). Photocatalytic CO2 reduction using non-titanium metal oxides and sulfides. ChemSusChem. 6(4):562-577. https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.2012006705625776