Ferrite-based nanomaterials for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction: Synthesis, properties, and mechanistic insights

The scientific community has shown increasing interest in the use of magnetic nanoparticles, particularly ferrite-based nanomaterials, for the photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Compared to other nanomaterials, they could provide a range of advantageous characteristics, including high performance, low cost, low toxicity, and distinctive magnetic properties that facilitate separation using external magnetic fields. This review offers a comprehensive and updated assessment of ferrite-based magnetic nanomaterials for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction. It uniquely integrates recent advancements in synthesis, properties, and mechanistic insights, highlighting emerging materials to bridge fundamental science with practical challenges for sustainable CO₂ conversion and solar fuel generation. It presents a thorough overview of their synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic properties, surveying techniques like dimensional tuning, co-catalyst loading, doping, coupling with plasmonic materials, oxygen vacancies, charge separation methods, morphological optimization, porosity enhancement, heterojunction formation, and Z-scheme implementation. By bridging the gap between fundamental science and applied challenges, this review identifies emerging design principles and future directions for developing highly efficient, magnetically recoverable photocatalysts aimed at mitigating CO₂ emissions through solar-driven chemical transformation.