Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide to Chemical Fuels: Challenges and Opportunities for a Solar Fuel Device

•We suggest an evolutionary link between the N and C cycles.•We discuss advances in catalytic and electrocatalytic N2 and CO2 reduction.•We touch on challenges in the development of a solar fuel device.•We highlight some recent engineering breakthroughs.•We propose metrics of electrocatalyst assessment.

Aspects of the electrochemical reduction of nitrogen and carbon dioxide at molecular and heterogeneous catalysts are discussed. We focus on recent advances in the field and touch on some of the remaining challenges in the production of solar fuels from N2 and CO2 with a direct, integrated solar fuel device. As such, we now propose metrics of catalyst assessment for non-H2 solar fuels.

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