Bismuth-based materials for CO2 photoreduction

Bismuth-based materials represent a promising photocatalytic material for mild and sustainable CO2 conversion. Despite promising achievements in advanced research, single bismuth-based materials still suffer from issues, such as unsuitable energy band structures, high photogenerated electron-hole recombination, poor electron extraction, and lack of active sites. This mini review is dedicated to outline the characteristics of composition modulation, structure regulation, single-atom engineering, heterogeneous junction strategy and reaction system optimization from both thermodynamic and kinetic perspectives, and to point out their limitations and suggestions for further optimization. We expect to provide new insights for the design of bismuth-based photocatalysts as well as monolithic reaction systems.