Theoretical insights into the mechanism of photocatalytic reduction of CO2 over semiconductor catalysts

Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 is one important approach to alleviate greenhouse gas emission and energy crisis, which has gained huge attention in the past decades. However, the lack of understanding complex reaction mechanism impedes new catalysts design. It is also very difficult to understand the mechanism by using only experimental approaches. For this concern, theoretical calculations can effectively supplement the experimental deficiency and thus play an important role. Recently theoretical calculations have been performed on adsorption, migration and reduction of CO2 molecule on the photocatalyst surface, leading to useful information that have contributed greatly to this field. This review summarizes recent advances in first-principles calculations about CO2 photoreduction over various semiconductor photocatalysts like metal oxides, sulfides and g-C3N4. The methods, models, adsorption and reaction pathways have been discussed in detail. The perspective about future investigation on the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 using first principles calculations is also presented.