Challenges and Perspectives in Designing Artificial Photosynthetic Systems

The development of artificial photosynthetic systems for water splitting and CO2 reduction on a large scale for practical applications is the ultimate goal towards worldwide sustainability. This Concept highlights the state-of-the-art research trends of artificial photosynthesis concepts and designs from some new perspectives. Particularly, it is focused on five important aspects for the design of promising artificial photosynthetic systems: 1) catalyst development, 2) architecture design, 3) device buildup 4) mechanism exploration, and 5) theoretical investigations. Some typical progress and challenges, the most significant milestones achieved to date, as well as possible future directions are illustrated and discussed. This Concept article presents a selection of new developments to highlight new trends and possibilities, main barriers, or challenges; with this, we hope to inspire more advances in the field of artificial photosynthesis.