The use of solar energy to drive the photocatalytic transformation of CO2 to fuels –artificial photosynthesis– is clearly one of those promising technical solutions to simultaneously address the current energy crisis and the negative impacts of global warming, which are among the goals for the 21st century. The project CO2MIC envisages addressing the two main implementation challenges for artificial photosynthesis (i.e. photo-, and photoelectro-reduction of CO2 in H2O): (i) limited mass transfer, light distribution and area/volume constraints in current photodevices for CO2 conversion, and (ii) charge separation, CO2 activation and reaction selectivity at current photoactive materials, with focus on the production of liquid fuels (i.e. methanol and ethanol) as viable and suitable products for near-term implementation.

Research team