Abstract

The transition to a green and sustainable energy-based scheme is one of the most important challenges that faces our society. Natural photosynthesis is the process by which sunlight energy is stored into chemical bonds to sustain life, producing only O2 as a by-product. Therefore, an appealing approach is the application of Artificial Photosynthetic (AP) schemes to produce the so-called solar fuels and fine solar chemicals from CO2 and water using sunlight as driving force. However, both CO2 reduction and water oxidation (WO) are challenging processes and remain bottlenecks for the development of efficient AP. In addition, a viable artificial photosynthetic approach should also rely on inexpensive and long-lasting photocatalytic materials. In this regard, new sustainable, modular, robust and efficient catalytic platforms are needed. Moreover, it is important to notice that to design efficient and robust artificial photosynthetic systems, a fundamental understanding of the factors that control both the catalytic activity and selectivity is necessary.