Review on porous nanomaterials for adsorption and photocatalytic conversion of CO2

Photocatalytic conversion of “greenhouse gas” CO2 is considered to be one of the most effective ways to alleviate current energy and environmental problems without additional energy consumption and pollutant emission. The performance of many traditional semiconductor photocatalysts is not efficient enough to satisfy the requirements of practical applications because of their limited specific surface area and low CO2 adsorption capacity. Therefore, the exploration of photocatalysts with high CO2 uptake is significant in the field of CO2 conversion. Recently the porous materials appeared to be a kind of superior candidate for enriching the CO2 molecules on the surface of photocatalysts for catalytic conversion. This paper first summarizes the advances in the development of nanoporous adsorbents for CO2 capture. Three main classes of porous materials are considered: inorganic porous materials, metal organic frameworks, and microporous organic polymers. Based on systematic research on CO2 uptake, we then highlight the recent progress in these porous-material-based photocatalysts for CO2 conversion. Benefiting from the improved CO2 uptake capacity, the porous-material-based photocatalysts exhibited remarkably enhanced efficiency in the reduction of CO2 to chemical fuels, such as CO, CH4, and CH3OH. Based on reported recent achievements, we predict a trend of development in multifunctional materials with both high adsorption capability and photocatalytic performance for CO2 utilization.