Hierarchically nanostructured functional materials for artificial photosynthesis

Abstract Artificial photosynthesis is a promising strategy for carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction to produce hydrocarbon fuels as well as other value added products. CO2 reduction has been supreme resolution in order to mitigate the global warming and climate change and to explore the possibilities to produce renewable energies. However, the development of high-efficient artificial/synthetic photoactive materials toward CO2 reduction is very challenging as these synthetic materials often exhibit low thermodynamic stability and high rate of recombination of charge carriers during the photocatalytic process. Consequently, there are a variety of approaches such as the physical and chemical modifications of materials that have been explored toward mimicking the photosynthesis process efficiently. Of such various approaches, the development of hierarchical nanostructuring of photocatalytic materials is promising and versatile toward achieving high quantum efficiencies in CO2 conversion into fuels.