Tandem catalysis: A sustainable alternative for direct hydrogenation of CO2 to light olefins

The design and development of novel tandem catalysts to facilitate the production of value-added chemicals and fuels via heterogeneous routes holds great prospect in revolutionizing the chemical industry. Herein, we discuss the fundamentals of tandem catalysis and provided a comprehensive account of recent advances related to the design and tuning of tandem catalysts for direct CO2 hydrogenation to light olefins. Moreover, insights on catalyst deactivation in tandem CO2 hydrogenation has been provided. In addition, the prospects of core-shell configuration and its high flexibility in implementing efficient tandem catalyst design strategies has been discussed. Most importantly, the insights and perspectives provided therein are hoped to stimulate and guide in the future design of highly efficient tandem catalysts that could enable the commercialization of the process as a sustainable and environmentally benign alternative for olefin production. [Display omitted] •Concept of tandem catalysis and principles of designing tandem catalysts.•Core-shell tandem catalyst: design precision meets structure tunability.•Advances in direct CO2 hydrogenation to olefins on tandem catalysts were provided.•Insights on catalyst deactivation in tandem CO2 hydrogenation.•Challenges and perspectives on development of tandem catalysts for the processes.