Photocatalytic carbon dioxide reforming of methane as an alternative approach for solar fuel production-a review

CO2 reforming of CH4 offers a great potential to convert two important greenhouse gases to value-added fuels. To comply with the high temperature required for this reaction that give rise to many serious problems, photocatalysis using photon energy from inexhaustible solar energy offers a great potential to carry out this reaction at mild condition. Although it is possible to convert extremely stable CO2 and CH4 gases using photoenergy, there are very limited studies reported hitherto. Hence, this review aims to provide insights for future works on photocatalytic CO2 reforming of CH4 based on the reported works so far. Thermal catalytic CO2 reforming of CH4 is introduced first followed by problems associated with it, then possibility of replacing photon energy to drive the reaction is discussed. Special attention is given to CH4 where insights into CH4 photoactivation are presented next. Detailed analysis of literature on the development of photocatalysts and reaction parameters is then discussed and lastly, the review is recapitulated by providing perspectives on driving photocatalytic CO2 reforming of CH4.