Conversion of Solar Energy to Fuels by Inorganic Heterogeneous Systems

Over the last several years, the need to find clean and renewable energy sources has increased rapidly because current fossil fuels will not only eventually be depleted, but their continuous combustion leads to a dramatic increase in the carbon dioxide amount in atmosphere. Utilisation of the Sun's radiation can provide a solution to both problems. Hydrogen fuel can be generated by using solar energy to split water, and liquid fuels can be produced via direct CO2 photoreduction. This would create an essentially free carbon or at least carbon neutral energy cycle. In this tutorial review, the current progress in fuels' generation directly driven by solar energy is summarised. Fundamental mechanisms are discussed with suggestions for future research.