Oxygen Vacancy Engineering for Enhancing Catalytic Performance in CO2 Hydrogenation: Recent Advances and Future Directions

CO2 is a major contributor to global warming, leading to severe environment and human health consequences. Catalytic hydrogenation has emerged as one of the most promising strategies to mitigate CO2 emissions. However, the catalytic performance of existing catalysts remains suboptimal. Recent studies have highlighted the potential of oxygen vacancy (OV) engineering to enhance catalytic performance by activating reactants, accelerating electron transport, and tuning the surface chemical properties of catalysts. Despite its importance, a comprehensive review of OV engineering in CO2 hydrogenation reactions is lacking. This review systematically examines recent advancements in OV engineering for the design of novel catalytic materials for CO2 hydrogenation reactions. It covers key aspects such as construction methods, characterization techniques, and catalytic functions of OVs. Additionally, the review addresses the challenges in catalyst synthesis and characterization, while outlining potential future directions for the field. This review aims to provide valuable insights for the development of highly efficient CO2 hydrogenation catalysts.