Recent Progress in CO <sub>2</sub> Conversion: An Overview of Catalytic Strategies for Sustainable Fuel and Chemical Synthesis
ABSTRACT The conversion of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into value‐added chemicals and renewable fuels is a promising approach to mitigate climate change and promote the development of sustainable energy systems. However, despite the broad range of products, including CO, formic acid and multi‐carbon hydrocarbons, the large‐scale implementation of CO 2 conversion technologies is still hindered by low catalytic efficiency and high energy consumption. This review introduces recent advances in catalytic materials design, emphasizing the structure–property relationships that govern the performance of highly efficient catalysts across various CO 2 conversion processes, including photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, CO 2 hydrogenation, photothermal conversion, non‐thermal plasma techniques, and biological methodologies. By examining the synergies among catalyst architectures, key intermediates, catalytic mechanisms and reactor designs, this review explores the potential for tailored CO 2 conversion processes with optimized reaction pathways to achieve specific catalytic products, and also provides a roadmap for the development of efficient, scalable CO 2 conversion technologies to facilitate the transition to a circular carbon economy.
Authors
- Jianfeng Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2359-6658)
- Ma Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7804-2329)
- Boxuan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4280-4300)
- Li Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1442-1995)
- Yanming Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6616-3082)
- Guoxiong Wang
- Jian Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0896-5662)
- Hao Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8366-3648)
- J. Tang
- YT Xu
- G. Liu
- Qingbo Wa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1608-3974)
- Jiawei Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4011-3950)
- Yiran Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9554-6078)
- Zijian Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3908-3873)
- Yong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2179-3698)
- Yun Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1549-1669)
- Ziyun Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4286-9030)
- Yanping Xu
- Shuai Bi
- Yuqi Xiong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4589-2025)
- Mingliang Hu
- Xinbin Ma
- Siwen Zhang
- Li Zhai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6220-7064)
- Buxing Han
- Changbin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2124-0620)
- Kuncheng Zhang
- Haifeng Tian
- Min-Rui Gao
- Jinhua Ye
- Xiaofu Sun
- Dan Ren
- Shuangqun Chen Shuangqun Chen
- Wei Zhai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8237-0213)
- Weijia Zhou
- Xingchen Jiao
- Yi Xie
- Tongbu Lu
- Jun Gu
- Hongshuang Fan
- Zhenyu Shi
- Hongmei Li
- Yuhui Tian
- Hao Wei
- Chuan Xia
- Baoyu Xia
- Yongye Liang
- Min Liu
- Jianling Zhang
- Junjun Li
- Weisong Liu
- Zhanxi Fan
- Zhe Weng
- Wei Chen
- Hua Zhang
- Xinyue Long
- Ya‐Qian Lan
- Haiqing Wang
- Rong Cao
- Bolong Huang
- Lei Wang
- Lingling Zhang
- Huijuan Cui
- Lu Qiao
- An Zhang
- Chao Wang
- Zhicheng Zhang
Institutions
- Jiangnan University (CN)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Tianjin University of Technology (CN)
- Central South University (CN)
- University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Tianjin University (CN)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- City University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Henan University (CN)
- South China Normal University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK)
- National Institute for Materials Science (JP)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- University of Jinan (CN)
- Nanjing University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Hefei National Center for Physical Sciences at Nanoscale (CN)
- City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Research Institute (CN)
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (CN)
- Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (CN)
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (CN)
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (CN)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures (CN)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering Tianjin (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering (CN)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (CN)
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Chongqing University of Technology (CN)
- Northwest Normal University (CN)
- Zhejiang University (CN)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- SmartMat
- Published
- 2025-12-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smm2.70058
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Carbon dioxide utilization in catalysis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.82