Perspective on catalyst investigation for CO₂ conversion and related issues

CO₂ utilization has received worldwide attention. Effective utilization of CO₂ becomes an urgent challenge. As such, developing catalysts and catalytic processes for effective CO₂ conversion will contribute positively to reducing net CO₂ emission. Recent developments of catalysts for CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol, CO₂ methanation and CO₂ reforming of methane have been briefly reviewed. In particular, novel catalysts developed through computational catalysis and intensified catalyst preparation were presented. The importance of CO₂ anion in CO₂ reduction has been discussed. The plasma enhanced catalyst preparation was used as an example to demonstrate the importance of the multi-disciplinary efforts. Catalysts with optimized structures for heat transfer performance and distribution of active sites for CO₂ conversion have also been discussed. Because of the complexity of global warming, some issues (for example the influence of change in the terrestrial magnetic field induced by human activity) are still not clear and call for more fundamental studies.