Defect Engineering of Photocatalysts towards Elevated CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction Performance
Meng Shen, Lingxia Zhang, Jianlin Shi
Abstract
Abstract Photocatalytic CO 2 reduction provides a promising solution to address the crises of massive CO 2 emissions and fossil energy shortages. As one of the most effective strategies to promote CO 2 photoconversion, defect engineering shows great potential in modulating the electronic structure and light absorption properties of photocatalysts while increasing surface active sites for CO 2 activation and conversion. This Review summarizes the recent progress in defect engineering of photocatalysts to promote CO 2 reduction performances from the following four aspects: 1) Approaches to defect (mainly vacancy and dopant) generation in photocatalysts; 2) defect structure characterization techniques; 3) physical and chemical properties of defect‐engineered photocatalysts; 4) CO 2 reduction performance enhancements in activity, selectivity, and stability of photocatalysts by defect engineering. This Review is expected to present readers with a comprehensive view of progress in the field of photocatalytic CO 2 reduction through defect engineering for elevated CO 2 ‐to‐fuels conversion efficiency.