The development of artificial photosynthetic technologies able to produce solar-fuels from CO₂ reduction is a fundamental task that requires the employment of specific catalysts being accomplished. Besides, effective catalysts are also demanded to capture atmospheric CO₂, mitigating the effects of its constantly increasing emission. Biomimetic transition metal complexes are considered ideal platforms to develop efficient and selective catalysts to be implemented in electrocatalytic and photocatalytic devices. These catalysts, designed according to the inspiration provided by nature, are simple synthetic molecular systems capable of mimic features of the enzymatic activity. The present review aims to focus the attention on the mechanistic and structural aspects highlighted to be necessary to promote a proper catalytic activity. The determination of these characteristics is of interest both for clarifying aspects of the catalytic cycle of natural enzymes that are still unknown and for developing synthetic molecular catalysts that can readily be applied to artificial photosynthetic devices.

中文翻译：

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仿生方法减少二氧化碳。

能够通过还原CO ₂产生太阳能的人造光合作用技术的发展是一项基本任务，需要采用特定的催化剂来完成。此外，还需要有效的催化剂来捕获大气中的CO _2。，减轻其不断增加的排放量的影响。仿生过渡金属络合物被认为是开发可在电催化和光催化装置中实施的高效和选择性催化剂的理想平台。这些催化剂是根据自然界提供的灵感设计的，是能够模拟酶活性特征的简单合成分子系统。本综述旨在将注意力集中在突出强调促进适当催化活性所必需的机械和结构方面。这些特征的确定对于阐明仍未知的天然酶的催化循环的方面以及开发可容易地应用于人工光合装置的合成分子催化剂都是有意义的。