The potential of H₂ evolution and CO₂ mitigation from photochemical to electrochemical perspectives

Environmental pollution and energy concerns have reached a critical inflection point, with demands for swift and strategic intervention. This review is highly pertinent and timely, encouraging research into alternative energy sources and carbon reduction strategies. The significant characteristics of some advanced nanocatalysts and current achievements that extend their unprecedented photocatalytic as well as electrocatalytic activity towards scalable pathways are discussed. We detail thermodynamic and kinetic principles, shedding light on state-of-art operando techniques for real-time mechanistic insights and computational analysis. The pitfalls and economic and ecological implications associated with catalytic materials, highlighting the need to optimise performance and large-scale applicability, are also presented, to focus coherently on their broad enhancement.