Killing two birds with one stone: State-of-the-art progress in dual-functional photoredox catalysis for solar fuel conversion and selective organic transformation

Using solar energy to couple the photoinduced reductive half-reaction with a matched oxidative half-reaction has received increasing attention in recent years. Such a process represents an alternative artificial photosynthetic route for energy storage and chemical synthesis, like killing two birds with one stone. This review article concisely summarizes and highlights the state-of-the-art progresses of semiconductor-based dual-functional photoredox catalysis that couples the reductive half-reaction such as the proton (H⁺) reduction into H₂, CO₂ reduction, and O₂ reduction to H₂O₂ with a matched oxidative organic transformation reaction including alcohol oxidation, C-C/-C-O coupling, -C-N coupling, biomass or plastics photoreforming, and other reactions, which can make full use of the electrons and holes generated from the semiconductors to realize the solar fuel conversion and selective organic transformation into valuable chemicals simultaneously. The challenges and prospects for future development of semiconductor-based dual-functional photoredox catalysis are also presented.