Emergence of Non-photoresponsive Catalytic Techniques for Environmental Remediation and Energy Generation

Catalysis plays a crucial role in all the major applications and challenges in the environment, including energy generation and environmental remediation. Although photocatalysts and electrocatalysts are useful in addressing energy and environmental issues, they have some major drawbacks, such as low efficiency and easy charge recombination which limits their applications. Hence, it is imperative to design and explore new catalytic techniques that include non-photoresponsive catalysts. In this review, the detailed possibilities, characteristics and prospects of non-photoresponsive catalysts, such as piezocatalysts, thermocatalysts, pyrocatalysts, and tribocatalysts along with hybrid catalysts are described. The overall mechanism of each catalytic technique and its applications in different fields such as energy generation, environmental remediation, and carbon dioxide reduction are discussed.