About this Research Topic
The utilization of carbon-rich fossil fuels has enabled an unprecedented era of prosperity and advancement of well-being for human society. However, the increase of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has arguably increased global temperature, causing possibly irreversible climate change due to the greenhouse effect. Moreover, fossil fuels are a limited resource and their depletion will ultimately force us to seek alternative energy sources to maintain a sustainable economy.
For these reasons, there has been an increasing focus on utilizing nontraditional carbon sources for synthesizing chemical feedstocks and transportation fuels. CO2 conversion has great potential, because a major advance in energy-efficient CO2 conversion using renewable energy could reduce both greenhouse-gas emissions and our dependence on non-renewable energy sources.
This Research Topic focuses on catalytic CO2 conversion to value-added products via thermal, electro, and photocatalytic approaches. Potential topics include, but not limited to, the following:
• Advances in thermal catalysis in CO2 conversion
• Applications of electro- and photocatalytic technologies in CO2 conversion
• Relationship of catalyst structure and catalytic performance
• Identification of active sites
• Mechanistic studies (intermediates, reaction pathways, roles of additives and water)
• Effect of impurities in CO2 feedstock (sulfur-containing compounds, etc)
• Reactor design and optimization
• Issues with energy efficiency, technical and economic viability
Keywords: thermocatalysis, electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, CO2 conversion, mechanistic studies, catalytic engineering
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
