Harvesting sunlight for reductive transformation of CO₂ into carbonaceous fuels has been regarded as a sustainable pathway to manufacture carbon-neutral energy, as well as the promising mitigation of greenhouse gas. With the advantages of well-defined and highly modulable molecular structures, many chemists have devoted to the design of molecular systems of light-stimulated CO2 reduction with transition metal complexes, which can function as either PSs to transporting electrons upon light excitation, or catalysts to accept electrons for catalytic CO2 reduction. The use of inorganic or organic semiconductors as PS candidates is also very appealing to replace the vulnerable molecular chromophores with low expense and high stability. With the above components, extensive efforts have been dedicated to achieving high metrics including TOF, TON, selectivity and apparent quantum yield, which continues to present fundamental challenges. In this context, the photocatalytic performances of molecular systems for CO2 reduction can be accomplished via rational design of catalysts and PSs, which are highly dependent on the ligand modification strategies to screen out high-performance molecular components.

Dr. Jia-Wei Wang's group is interested in the construction of noble-metal-free molecular catalytic systems for fuel-forming reactions, combining CO2 reduction and various oxidative half-reactions, ultimately high-performance artificial photosynthetic systems. The present research involves several facets:

1. Molecular design of the noble-metal-free, molecular components in CO₂-photoreduction systems;

2. Applications of dynamic interactions between PS and catalyst for boosting electron transfer and photocatalytic CO₂ reduction.

3. Interaction design between molecular catalysts and functinal surface for CO₂ electro-/photoreduction.