CO₂ conversion to solar fuels/chemicals is an alluring approach for narrowing critical issues of global warming, environmental pollution, and climate change, caused by excess atmospheric CO₂ concentration. Amongst various CO₂ conversion strategies, photocatalytic CO₂ conversion (PCC) is considered as a promising approach, which utilizes inexpensive sunlight and water with a photocatalyst material. Hence, development of an efficient and a stable photocatalyst is an essential activity for the respective scientific community to upscale the PCC research domain. Until today, metal oxides, such as TiO₂, ZnO, etc., are categorized as standard photocatalysts because of their relative stability, abundant availability and low cost. However, their performance is tethered by limited light absorption and somewhat physical properties. Recently, layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have offered an exciting and efficient way for PCC due to their superb CO₂ adsorption and moderate photocatalytic properties. The LDH based photocatalysts show marvelous physiochemical and electrical properties like high surface area, stability, and excellent conductivity. In the present review article, a summarized survey is portrayed regarding latest development for LDH based photocatalysts with a focus on synthesis strategies employing various photocatalyst materials, influencing parameters and possible mechanism involved in PCC to useful fuels and chemicals like CO, CH₄, CH₃OH, and H₂.

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.

Photocatalytic conversion of CO₂ to useful products is an alluring approach for acquiring the two-fold benefits of normalizing excess atmospheric CO₂ levels and the production of solar chemicals/fuels. Therefore, photocatalytic materials are continuously being developed with enhanced performance in accordance with their respective domains. In recent years, nanostructured photocatalysts such as one dimensional (1-D), two dimensional (2-D) and three dimensional (3-D)/hierarchical have been a subject of great importance because of their explicit advantages over 0-D photocatalysts, including high surface areas, effective charge separation, directional charge transport, and light trapping/scattering effects. Furthermore, the strategy of doping (metals and non-metals), as well as coupling with a secondary material (noble metals, another semiconductor material, graphene, etc.), of nanostructured photocatalysts has resulted in an amplified photocatalytic performance. In the present review article, various titanium dioxide (TiO₂)-based nanostructured photocatalysts are briefly overviewed with respect to their application in photocatalytic CO₂ conversion to value-added chemicals. This review primarily focuses on the latest developments in TiO₂-based nanostructures, specifically 1-D (TiO₂ nanotubes, nanorods, nanowires, nanobelts etc.) and 2-D (TiO₂ nanosheets, nanolayers), and the reaction conditions and analysis of key parameters and their role in the up-grading and augmentation of photocatalytic performance. Moreover, TiO₂-based 3-D and/or hierarchical nanostructures for CO₂ conversions are also briefly scrutinized, as they exhibit excellent performance based on the special nanostructure framework, and can be an exemplary photocatalyst architecture demonstrating an admirable performance in the near future.

Acacia mangium is a widely grown tree species across the forests in Brunei Darussalam, posing a threat to the existence of some native species in Brunei Darussalam. These species produce large quantities of lignocellulosic biomass from the tree parts comprising the phyllodes, trunk, bark, twigs, pods, and branches. This study examined the thermochemical characteristics and pyrolytic conversion behavior of these tree parts to assess the possibility of valorization to yield bioenergy. Proximate, ultimate, heating value, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses were performed to assess the thermochemical characterization, while thermogravimetric analysis was conducted to examine the pyrolytic degradation behavior. Proximate analysis revealed a moisture content, volatile, fixed carbon, and ash contents of 7.88–11.65 wt.%, 69.82–74.85 wt.%, 14.47–18.31 wt.%, and 1.41–2.69 wt.%, respectively. The heating values of the samples were reported in a range of 19.51–21.58 MJ/kg on a dry moisture basis, with a carbon content in the range of 45.50–50.65 wt.%. The FTIR analysis confirmed the heterogeneous nature of the biomass samples with the presence of multiple functional groups. The pyrolytic thermal degradation of the samples occurred in three major stages from the removal of moisture and light extractives, hemicellulose and cellulose decomposition, and lignin decomposition. The bio-oil yield potential from the biomass samples was reported in the range of 40 to 58 wt.%, highlighting the potential of Acacia mangium biomass for the pyrolysis process.

The prospect of synthesizing biochar from agricultural wastes or by-products to utilize them as a promising adsorbent material is increasingly gaining attention. This research work focuses on synthesizing biochar from castor biomass (CBM) and evaluating its potential as an adsorbent material. Castor biomass-based biochar (CBCs) prepared by the slow pyrolysis process at different temperatures (CBC400 °C, CBC500 °C, and CBC600 °C for 1 h) was investigated for the adsorption of textile dye effluents (safranin). The pyrolysis temperature played a key role in enhancing the morphology, and the crystallinity of the biochar which are beneficial for the uptake of safranin. The CBC600 adsorbent showed a higher safranin dye removal (99.60%) and adsorption capacity (4.98 mg/g) than CBC500 (90.50% and 4.52 mg/g), CBC400 (83.90% and 4.20 mg/g), and castor biomass (CBM) (64.40% and 3.22 mg/g). Adsorption data fitted better to the Langmuir isotherm model than to the Freundlich isotherm model. The kinetics of the adsorption process was described well using the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The study on the effect of the contact time for the adsorption process indicated that for CBC600, 80% dye removal occurred in the first 15 min of the contact time. After three regeneration cycles, CBC600 exhibited the highest dye removal efficiency (64.10%), highlighting the enhanced reusability of CBCs. The crystalline patterns, functional binding sites, and surface areas of the prepared CBCs (CBC400, CBC500, CBC600) were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area measurements, respectively.

Dyestuff is one of the most widely released pollutants into the environment. Many approaches have been considered to deal with the dye removal from polluted water such as adsorption, ultrafiltration, osmosis, solvent extraction and photocatalytic degradation. The photocatalytic degradation process is one of the most beneficial, economical and environmentally friendly ways to degrade the organic pollutants from wastewater. In this study, an efficient ferrite-based photocatalyst, AgFeO₂/rGO/TiO₂ was successfully developed using simple deposition and reflux method. Physical, chemical and structural properties were analyzed by using XRD, FTIR Raman and PL spectroscopy. The efficiency of photocatalyst was investigated for the decolorization of methyl blue (MB) dye and activity was measured through UV-vis spectroscopy. The effect of parameters like pH, concentrations of MB dye, and loading of silver ferrite (AgFeO₂) was investigated. The study depicted that the properties of TiO₂ were improved due to addition of silver ferrite and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The 2.5% AgFeO₂/rGO/TiO₂ exhibited the highest efficiency and completely degraded the 50 ppm of MB dye in 30 min. The parametric study revealed that dye decolorization is faster in a neutral solution than in basic and acidic medium. The higher performance of the photocatalyst was attributed to the reduced charge recombination and improved optical properties. Thus, AgFeO₂/rGO/TiO₂ can be a potential composite for photocatalytic dye degradation and other photocatalytic applications under UV-Visible light irradiations.