Recent advances in non-thermal plasma (NTP) catalysis towards C1 chemistry

C1 chemistry mainly involves the catalytic transformation of C1 molecules (i.e., CO, CO₂, CH₄ and CH₃OH), which usually encounters thermodynamic and/or kinetic limitations. To address these limitations, non-thermal plasma (NTP) activated heterogeneous catalysis offers a number of advantages, such as relatively mild reaction conditions and energy efficiency, in comparison to the conventional thermal catalysis. This review presents the state-of-the-art for the application of NTP-catalysis towards C1 chemistry, including the CO₂ hydrogenation, reforming of CH₄ and CH₃OH, and water-gas shift (WGS) reaction. In the hybrid NTP-catalyst system, the plasma-catalyst interactions are multifaceted. Accordingly, this review also includes a brief discussion on the fundamental research into the mechanisms of NTP activated catalytic C1 chemistry, such as the advanced characterisation methods (e.g., in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy, DRIFTS), temperature-programmed plasma surface reaction (TPPSR), kinetic studies. Finally, prospects for the future research on the development of tailor-made catalysts for NTP-catalysis systems (which will enable the further understanding of its mechanism) and the translation of the hybrid technique to practical applications of catalytic C1 chemistry are discussed.