In recent years, the increase of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere has become a global environmental issue because of the serious problems, such as the “greenhouse effect”. The idea of mimicking the overall natural photosynthetic cycle of chemical conversion of CO₂ into useful fuels has been consistently gaining attention for more than thirty years. Such artificial photosynthesis allows direct conversion of CO₂ and water on photocatalysts into valuable hydrocarbon using sunlight at room temperature and ambient pressure to serve to reduce atmospheric CO₂ concentrations while providing on a renewable carbon fixation and energy storage.

In this presentation, we will report the utilization of solar energy to highly efficient conversion of CO₂ into renewable hydrocarbon fuel over structured nanomaterials. The geometric shape and exposure of specific crystal planes of the nanostructures as well as combination of graphene as a good electron collector and transporter are a requisite for the high level of photocatalytic reduction of CO₂.

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[2] Q. Liu, Y. Zhou, J. H. Kou, X. Y. Chen, Z. P. Tian, J. Gao, S. C. Yan, Z. G. Zou  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 14385.