Recent Progress in CO₂ Conversion: An Overview of Catalytic Strategies for Sustainable Fuel and Chemical Synthesis

The conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into value-added chemicals and renewable fuels is a promising approach to mitigate climate change and promote the development of sustainable energy systems. However, despite the broad range of products, including CO, formic acid and multi-carbon hydrocarbons, the large-scale implementation of CO₂ conversion technologies is still hindered by low catalytic efficiency and high energy consumption. This review introduces recent advances in catalytic materials design, emphasizing the structure–property relationships that govern the performance of highly efficient catalysts across various CO₂ conversion processes, including photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, CO₂ hydrogenation, photothermal conversion, non-thermal plasma techniques, and biological methodologies. By examining the synergies among catalyst architectures, key intermediates, catalytic mechanisms and reactor designs, this review explores the potential for tailored CO₂ conversion processes with optimized reaction pathways to achieve specific catalytic products, and also provides a roadmap for the development of efficient, scalable CO₂ conversion technologies to facilitate the transition to a circular carbon economy.