Perovskites in the energy grid and CO₂ conversion: Current context and future directions

CO₂ emissions from the consumption of fossil fuels are continuously increasing, thus impacting Earth’s climate. In this context, intensive research efforts are being dedicated to develop materials that can effectively reduce CO₂ levels in the atmosphere and convert CO₂ into value-added chemicals and fuels, thus contributing to sustainable energy and meeting the increase in energy demand. The development of clean energy by conversion technologies is of high priority to circumvent these challenges. Among the various methods that include photoelectrochemical, high-temperature conversion, electrocatalytic, biocatalytic, and organocatalytic reactions, photocatalytic CO₂ reduction has received great attention because of its potential to efficiently reduce the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere by converting it into fuels and value-added chemicals. Among the reported CO₂ conversion catalysts, perovskite oxides catalyze redox reactions and exhibit high catalytic activity, stability, long charge diffusion lengths, compositional flexibility, and tunable band gap and band edge. This review focuses on recent advances and future prospects in the design and performance of perovskites for CO₂ conversion, particularly emphasizing on the structure of the catalysts, defect engineering and interface tuning at the nanoscale, and conversion technologies and rational approaches for enhancing CO₂ transformation to value-added chemicals and chemical feedstocks.