Promises and Challenges in Photocatalysis

Abstract

Photocatalysis is a Promising Technology for Energy and Environmental Protection The current rapid industrial development causes both a heavy reliance on non-renewable energy and a dramatic increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, which in turn lead to severe energy and environmental crises (Zhang et al., 2015; Li et al., 2019; Li et al., 2020; Li et al., 2021). Therefore, it is urgent to consider how to develop new energy to meet the sustainable development of society. Nowadays, direct solar-to-fuel conversion through green photocatalysis technology has received increasing research interests due to its potential for solar energy utilization and storage to relieve the growing energy demands and greenhouse effect (Habisreutinger et al., 2013). With the expansion and deepening of the research, photocatalysis technology has been extended to many fields, such as energy, health, environment, pollution control and value-added chemicals synthesis (Lu et al., 2020). As a result, the relevance of photocatalysis and human life has been increasing steadily. The grand challenge of photocatalysis today is to further expand the practical application of photocatalytic technology in the industrial field, which requires future research to pay attention to the following aspects: