Recent Progress on Photocatalytic CO2 Conversion Reactions over Plasmonic Metal-based Catalysts

The massive consumption of fossil energy leads to excessive emissions of CO2, which has caused global warming. Solar-driven CO2 conversion is a promising avenue that could solve the energy crisis and environmental pollution issues simultaneously. For photocatalytic CO2 conversion reactions, several photocatalysts have been developed such as semiconductors and plasmonic metal-based catalysts. Among them, plasmonic metal-based catalysts have attracted extensive attention due to their strong light harvesting capacities and low electron–hole pair recombination rates, which are beneficial for photocatalytic CO2 conversion. This review summarizes the progress of plasmonic metal-based catalysts in CO2 reduction with H2, CH4, H2O, and organic chemicals and generalizes the mechanism of plasmonic metal-based catalysts in CO2 conversion reactions.