Photocatalysis for Sustainability: Bon Voyage from Homogeneous to Heterogeneous and Beyond

Recently solar energy has exhibited great potential as a promising alternative to substituting the traditional energy sources because it is renewable, abundant, affordable, and everlasting. Among various solar energy conversion techniques, photocatalysis is deemed as a promising, environmentally benign, and cost-effective strategy to generate both fuels and high-value chemicals. While in this domain homogeneous photocatalysts prevail due to higher selectivity but the reutilisation of the catalyst is next to impossible. On the other hand, heterogeneous photocatalysts are recyclable but not highly selective. Therefore, to make a bridge between these two, a new strategy has been developed by synthesizing single metal atom photocatalysts that are selective as well as recyclable. Based on this, recently we have developed several photocatalytic strategies for the synthesis of fuels as well as high valued chemicals where the catalysts exhibited excellent selectivity as well as recyclability.