Photocatalytic CO₂ conversion is vital technology to realize global carbon neutrality and generate future energy supplies. This review proposes fundamentals, challenges, strategies, and prospects for photocatalytic CO₂ conversion research.

Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction is emerging as an affordable route for abating its ever increasing concentration. For commercial scale applications, many constraints are still required to be addressed. A variety of research areas are explored, such as development of photocatalysts and photoreactors, reaction parameters and conditions, to resolve these bottlenecks. In general, the photocatalyst performance is mostly adjudged in terms of its ability to only produce hydrocarbon products, and other vital parameters such as light source, reaction parameters, and type of photoreactors used are not normally given appropriate attention. This makes a comprehensive comparison of photocatalytic performance quite unrealistic. Hence, probing the photocatalytic performance in terms of apparent quantum yield (AQY) with the consideration of certain process and experimental parameters is a more reasonable and prudent approach. The present brief review portrays the importance and impact of aforementioned parameters in the field of gas phase photocatalytic CO₂ reduction.

A perovskite betavoltaic cell is developed for the first time, utilizing chlorine-based dual additives and radioactive isotopes of carbon.

With the rapid increase in energy consumption worldwide, the development of renewable and alternative energy sources can sustain long-term development in the energy field. Hydrogen (H₂), which is one of the clean chemical fuels, has the highest weight energy density and its combustion byproduct is only water. Among the various methods of producing hydrogen source, water electrolysis is a process that can effectively produce H₂. However, it is difficult for commercialization of water electrolysis for H₂ production due to the high cost and low abundance of noble metal-based cathodic electrode used for highly efficiency. Several studies have been conducted to reduce noble metal loading and/or completely replace them with other materials to overcome these obstacles. Among them, stainless steel contains many components of transition metals (Ni, Cr, Co) but have sluggish reaction kinetics and small active surface area. In this study, the problem of stainless steel was to be solved by utilizing the electrocatalytic properties of silver nanoparticles on the electrode surface, and electrodes were easily fabricated through the electrodeposition process. In addition, the surface shape, elemental properties, and HER activity of the electrode was analyzed by comparing it with the commercialized silver nanoparticle-coated invasive electrodes from Inanos (Inano-Ag-IE) through the plasma coating process. As a result, silver nanoparticle-coated conventional electrode (Ag-CE) fabricated through electrodeposition confirmed high HER activity and stability. However, the Inano-Ag-IE showed low HER activity as silver nanoparticles were not found. We encourage further research on the production process of such products for sustainable energy applications.