Designing Nanoengineered Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Generation by Water Splitting and Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Clean Fuels

Abstract

Semiconductor photocatalysis has received tremendous attention in the past decade as it has shown great promise in the context of clean energy harvesting for environmental remediation. Sunlight is an inexhaustible source of energy available to us throughout the year, although it is rather dilutely dispersed. Semiconductor based photocatalysis presents one of the best ways to harness this source of energy to carry out chemical reactions of interest that require external energy input. Photocatalytic hydrogen generation by splitting of water, CO2 mitigation, and CO2 conversion to green fuel have therefore become the highly desirable clean and sustainable processes for a better tomorrow. Although numerous efforts have been made and continue to be expended to search and develop new classes of photocatalyst materials in recent years, several significant challenges still remain to be resolved before photocatalysis can reach its commercial potential. Therefore, major attention is required towards improving the efficiencies of the existing photocatalysts by further manipulating them and parallelly employing newer strategies for novel photocatalyst designs. This personal account aims to provide a broad overview of the field primarily invoking examples of our own research contributions in the field, which include photocatalytic hydrogen generation and CO2 reduction to value added chemicals. This account reviews the state-of-the-art research activities and scientific possibilities which a functional material can offer if its properties are put to best use through goal-oriented design by combining with other compatible materials. We have addressed fundamental principles of photocatalysis, different kind of functional photocatalysts, critical issues associated with them and various strategies to overcome the related hurdles. It is our hope that this current personal account will provide a platform for young researchers to address the bottleneck issues in the field of photocatalysis and photocatalysts with a sense of clarity, and to find innovative solutions to resolve them by a prudent choice of materials, synthesis protocols, and approaches to boost the photocatalysis output. We emphasize that a targeted or goal-directed photocatalyst nanoengineering as perhaps the only way to realize an early success in this multiparametric domain.